A Lost Soul
by IloveMerlinandArthur
Summary: In 1314 a monster was created and now in the present day the consequences of that are being felt. How will Nick and his friends deal with this latest mystery, especially when Nick has his own problems to work through regarding Juliette and a certain blonde Hexenbiest? Rated T for safety. Please Read and Review.
1. Prologue 1314

**Author's Note: ** I own nothing that anyone can recognise, don't sue please. I don't have the money. :)

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 **Prologue: 1314 (14th Century Europe)**

Edwyn Albyn de-Yolton was born in 1290, when he was a young boy his father Magnus de-Yolton always took Edwyn wherever he went. Edwyn's mother Julia Rosa de-Yolton had died in childbirth and so instead of being raised by a woman as many children often were, as their fathers went off to work and did everything to provide for the family - It was clear from the beginning Edwyn would not develop the compassion that most human beings did.

Magnus had little time to instil in his son the basic values and manners that his mother would have taught him, had she been alive. In fact, Edwyn's father did not have much time for his son at all, as Magnus was saddled not only with his work and his field studies but also with being a full-time father, although he was not that great at being one. Magnus had a deep curiosity about the native plants and materials and so studied them extensively, he also held a job in the Wesen Council, and his work required that he study natural medicines to treat Wesen diseases. This is how Edwyn started his long ill fated journey into alchemy, he along with his father travelled endlessly. Learning about different plants, what those plants could be used for and how. Edwyn also learned from his father what natural materials like precious stones and gems could do, especially when crushed down into fine powder could be used to create powerful healing poultices and so many other wondrous things.

However, Edwyn never learned the fundamental things that he should have, things like: humility, compassion and the understanding of emotions, especially those of other people. As a young man, Edwyn knew that he wanted to out-shine his father some day. Wanted to be greater than anything his father could have dreamed about, so he picked the road that most avoided and only a few had dared to tread. The road that had harsh thorns growing on either side was the road that Edwyn chose, opposed to the one that many travelled down, that had lush green grass and flowers in bloom.

Of course, these pathways could only be seen in the mind, but they were very much real. Edwyn could not see what was so terrifying about the harsh barren road and did not feel an inch of fear as he walked down it, however, looking over at the other road with its flowers he sneered in disgust, who in their right minds would walk down that road? Edwyn was unable to realize the precise reason and with the upbringing that he had gotten, it was fully understandable. Ignoring the danger signs as he went, Edwyn travelled further and further down the darkening path and as he did so, his curiosity and knowledge about plants and other natural materials transformed into obsession and alchemy.

Edwyn Albyn de-Yolton had always been curious about the world and after his father passed away, he unleashed his darker side. Everything, perhaps the only things that his father had ever cherished about him, his seemingly love of learning and his interest in all the things that Magnus had also liked, vanished. It would appear that Magnus had failed at one very important thing in his life and that was being a decent father.

In the twenty-four years since he had been born, Edwyn had gone on approximately eighty-three different adventures, more than half those had been when his father lived. Edwyn had discovered many things, not only about the world, but also about the people in it and how there were different species of people: Wesen. Edwyn had discovered that strange and exotic kinds of Wesen existed, but that he was one too - a Zauberbiest. During his travels, he had found out that there was a special kind of person - a person that could see the unseen. These people were called Grimms, these people were not ordinary and could see the world around them for what it truly was, and this included Wesen - even if they tried to hide.

Grimms, Edwyn noted down in his journal, were sometimes used by the Wesen Council to dispatch of Wesen who were causing unnecessary trouble, especially in the world of the normal people. Grimms, he also noted down, were commonly under the command of the Royal families. They were used as bodyguards, assassins and were the generals of Wesen slaves, torturing the Wesen into working. It was customary in many Wesen communities to be extremely afraid of the Grimms, and for good reason - as they conveyed the notion to have a fondness for chopping off Wesen heads.

Edwyn however, was not only interested in Grimms, he knew they were uncannily powerful and he wondered how the Grimms came to exist. How could ordinary people develop the sight to see? If they even, were normal people to begin with? Nevertheless, he was also intently focused on a type of Wesen known as a "Reaper". Reapers were sent out to hunt and kill wayward Grimms. It was said that the reason Reapers were sent out to do this was because some of the Grimms had become overzealous with violence and fell out with the Royal families and left, going off on their own - slaughtering Wesen wherever they went, leaving a bloody trail behind them.

The Reapers carried out these gruesome tasks with these weapons called scythes; they were big curved blades on a long thin handle, similar to an axe. On one side of each blade, it was rumoured that the words, "Reapers of the Grimms", was carved into the metal. Edwyn had once been a witness to a fight between a Grimm and a Reaper. The incident involving the Grimm and the Reaper happened in July of 1314. Edwyn was out exploring the world as usual, much the same as his father had done before him, only with a few differences, if one considered the fact that Edwyn liked to study human and Wesen behaviour.

Edwyn was observing two Blutbaden interacting with each other, when a man dressed in shabby torn-up clothes burst out from the surrounding forest. He appeared to be in his early thirties, but with the leaves and mud mixed in with his sandy blonde hair and blood gushing from a hole in his forehead - it was hard to tell. What interested Edwyn the most was the feral look in the man's eyes, those eyes were the eyes of a raging beast that had gotten free. However, looking carefully into the man's eyes Edwyn woged out of a sudden odd desire to see if this man was a Grimm. He had been doing that a lot lately and he had been on the receiving end of some freaked out stares by other Wesen.

After wogeing Edwyn could see the tell tale sign that this man was in fact a Grimm after all, the infinite darkness present there was a dead giveaway. The Grimm looked harried as he glanced around himself quickly before hurrying over to hide behind a larger tree. Edwyn continued to scrutinize the Grimm's behaviour; he looked shaken ready to collapse even. The man's breathing did not sound good and it was obvious that his lungs were hurting far more than they should, but nobody dared to approach him or offer help, especially the Wesen who were present. Initially they were terrified beyond belief because they had been so certain he was there to kill them, however watching the Grimm hide behind a tree and looking like death warmed over, they became less worried that he would come after them and became more curious about his sudden appearance.

It became abundantly clear as to why the Grimm was hiding - as another man broke out from the forest and came to an abrupt halt. This man wore all black and carried in his hand a large curved blade with engraved writing on the side. Edwyn could not believe his luck or his eyes, for before him stood a Reaper - a Reaper searching for a Grimm... Edwyn turned his eyes back to the Grimm and watched, as the man stiffened as he realised his pursuer had not been lost. The Grimm braced himself, squaring his shoulders and began to go through his pockets. Edwyn glanced back towards the Reaper, the Reaper turned his head towards the shuffling sounds coming from behind the tree and steeled his facial features into a hard, cold mask - any emotion he had shown, if he had was instantly gone.

The Grimm had found what he was looking for - a short-bladed hunting knife. The man looked like he was at a loss, Edwyn had to agree with that assessment as he mentally compared that tiny little knife to the much larger, much more powerful and offensive scythe the Reaper carried. The Grimm, Edwyn knew was at a great disadvantage, given his beaten up appearance and horrible breathing. In that very moment, it was a mere split second - a soft wind had touched Edwyn, tousled his hair and the knowledge that this fight would be the Grimm's last, his final battle slammed into him - sending a cold chill down his spine.

The Reaper fastened his grip on the blade he carried, making sure that the weapon would not be easily dislodged from his hands. The Wesen surrounding the scene backed up a few metres, as an innate sense inside them took over; they could almost feel the deathblow that was coming. The black clad man breathed in and stalked forward to the Grimm's hiding spot. Edwyn knew little about Grimms, but he did know that they were supposed to have good senses and with that piece of information, he looked towards the Grimm to see the weakened man brace himself. Just as the Reaper was preparing to swing his scythe around the tree, the Grimm moved quickly, surprising the Reaper, which enabled him to strike the other man with his hunting knife.

However, the Grimm's abrupt move was costly and resulted in a loss of strength, he had had the advantage of surprise, but now all he had was a small hunting knife and dwindling health. The sudden blow made the Reaper lose his balance and his blade slipped from his fingers despite the death grip he had had on the handle. The cloaked man knew he had to improvise and so proceeded to land two consecutive punches to the Grimm's face, breaking the nose and eye socket. This caused the Grimm to drop his knife and stumble backward with the Reaper advancing. No matter how sick the Grimm may have felt, Edwyn had to applaud his courage - continued to fight off his attacker. Both men were locked in a duel, fighting now with fists and feet - punching and kicking wherever possible.

The surrounding Wesen grew restless as the two fought on, but Edwyn did not mind the scene before him and took a vast pleasure in the blood-soaked ground, and battered men in front of him. Then the moment arrived, Edwyn felt a tingle go through his bones seconds before it. The Grimm's breathing became so bad he could barely stand, let alone fight. It was quite clear that his ribs had been broken in the violent scuffle and had pierced a lung. The Reaper knocked the Grimm to the ground as if he were trash; luckily, he fell near to his hunting knife and immediately grabbed onto it. The Reaper gave no heed to this and stooped to pick up his own weapon, a mistake that would cost him his life. In his rush to get the job over and done with, he got too cocky and thought perhaps the Grimm was much too injured to retaliate further. But the Grimm did, in a last burst of energy the man threw himself up at the Reaper and thrust his knife into the other man's neck, slicing through flesh and artery. The reaper reacted on instinct and swung his weapon, cutting deep into the Grimm's side.

It was not long before the Reaper sunk to the ground, having pulled the knife from his neck and realizing his own foolish error before bleeding out. The Grimm followed not long after and he too fell in an ungraceful heap, his breaths came out stuttered before he drew in his last. Edwyn remained motionless for what seemed to him an eternity. The gathered Wesen began to disperse, talking as they did so. Edwyn could hear someone in the crowd saying, "There ye go. That's one less Grimm to worry about." As Magnus had in a way neglected his son, Edwyn, had as a result developed the personality traits of a sociopath. Edwyn was a solitary character that was excessively curious about everything and he loved creating things, but he was also a cunning analytical character that took advantage of potential opportunities. Having been able to watch the gruesome battle between the Grimm and the Reaper without batting an eye or flinching for that matter was further proof of his detached state.

With that in mind, Edwyn Albyn de-Yolton quickly grew what he thought to be a masterful plan; it was like in his own mind - standing on the peripheral of greatness. Edwyn remembered a written piece from a book that spoke of dark alchemical potions and things that could be created if certain ingredients were to be combined and there had been a particular recipe, he could not remember what it had been called, but he did remember that it needed the fresh blood of a Grimm and a Reaper. Without wasting any more time, Edwyn hurried over to the fallen men. He thanked his lucky stars that he always carried his alchemical satchel with him and began digging through it to find two glass vials, and then he proceeded to collect the blood samples needed.

Once Edwyn had retrieved the required amount of blood, he packed them into his satchel and rushed home. Edwyn lived in the Crimea Republic, Ukraine and his small, somewhat modest house was made from rough stone and was square in shape. The house contained little square windows and stone archways. The floor was stone and dirt, the kitchen was small with a hearth that had a cooking pot sitting next to it. The little house that Edwyn called home was sparsely furnished, with the kitchen also acting as a dining area and contained a jagged cut round table with two uneven chairs. There were two other rooms in the dingy dwelling, a tiny bedroom bearing a single wood cot with a hay and cloth mattress and one bedside table with a candle resting on top. The next room, which was hardly furnished was the bathroom. Edwyn breathed a sigh of relief upon reaching the front door, he could smell the ocean breeze or something similar to it, as the Crimea Republic was set in-between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The air was humid, which added to Edwyn's growing anticipation.

Finally entering his house, Edwyn made his way over to the dining table and pulled out the blood samples, sitting them on the table. He then went over to a chest that had been hidden from view and pulled out a book - a very special book. It was called the Unbekannte Geheimnis, the book had been written by his father. Glancing at it reverently for a moment, he then opened it, scouring the contents for a particular recipe and method. Edwyn finally stopped when he had found what he was searching for, the page was entitled: Todesengel, and underneath that, a subtitle that read, "Creating a Grimm Reaper". Down the page Edwyn's fingers travelled, following the ingredients list.

 **Bottled Ingredients:**

Four and half bottles of Ewiges Leben

Six bottles of Tropfen des Todes

Three and one quarter bottles of Essenz der Seele

Five bottles of Cut des Grauens

Ten bottles of Prise Angst

One bottle of Gewurz Mischungen

Two bottles of Brennnessel Trank

Two and a half bottles of Ratten-Herzen-Zeichenfolge

 **Stand Alone Ingredients:**

Three Feuer-Unkraut

Six Schwarz Rosenblatt

One Schweineohren

Four and a half Mitternacht Schatten

One vial of Reaper's Blut

One vial of Grimm's Blut

One full dead body aged 30-50 years. Has to have been buried two years or more. The body must be that of a male Zauberbiest, frozen in a state of woge.

Upon reading the last ingredient, Edwyn felt stumped, find a Zauberbiest that was aged 30-50 years, had been buried for at least two years and frozen in a state of woge - how on earth was he going to find that?! Wesen always returned to their human appearance when they died, it was a fact. He growled and grumbled until a thought hit him. What if the Zauberbiest was frozen in a state of woge because they had ingested something that stopped the reversal transformation? He had heard of people, Wesen being skinned of their Wesen selves and a potion had been involved...It was settled, he would just have to ask around and if that didn't yield any answers, well Edwyn knew where the nearest Wesen cemetery was, he'd have to go digging.

After setting out to go question the community Edwyn had received no luck or help from nearly all the Wesen living there, some slammed their front doors in his face, with disgust gracing their features. Others looked at him as if he was a strange insect that they had never seen before and asked him as politely as possible to, "Move Along". When Edwyn thought no one in town was going to help him because they just did not understand, he remembered the old Wesen that lived down the street, and this guy back in his younger days was a devoted mad scientist and now was in fact a gravedigger. Edwyn wasted no time as he bolted down the street and found himself knocking on the front door before he even had a chance to blink. The elderly man that answered was in his late seventies.

"Good Afternoon, Sir. I was wondering if you could help me." Edwyn asked, smoothing his voice out and stared unblinkingly at the old man.

"What is it that you need help with, young man?" The elder asked in return squinting his eyes, appraising the younger man.

"I was hoping you could tell me if there were any Wesen buried two or so years ago that were frozen in a state of woge?" Edwyn asked gently, not wanting to be told to go away for another time.

"Why don't you come inside to have this conversation?" The elderly man said with narrowed eyes and gestured for the young man to come in.

"Thank you for inviting me in." Edwyn returned politely, however the elder knew the politeness was a farce, there was not a nice bone in the boy before him - he could feel it radiating off the boy, hitting him in waves. This young man had a blackened soul, no doubt about it. However, the elderly man quietly told Edwyn all about a body he had buried four years ago, it just so happened to be a Zauberbiest. Edwyn was jumping for joy inside. The elderly man sighed as the boy left, he knew only bad would come of it, but he remembered being that age once and the things that he had experimented with.

Armed with a shovel and a lantern, Edwyn moved swiftly and with great haste up the hill, to Seele des Tieres Cemetery - a place where Wesen were buried. The time was nearing 9:00pm and everyone in the community with the exception of Edwyn, were obeying the town's curfew. Mikhail Aleksandrovich had put the curfew into place, he was the ruler of Russia but he had his hands and claws dug into Ukraine so deep he almost owned it. It wouldn't have surprised Edwyn if the Grand Duke did partially own it, he was after all part of one of the old royal families, especially one of the families that practiced Wesen slavery and was largely responsible for rogue Grimms running about.

Nevertheless, Edwyn was feeling grateful to the Grand Duke and for his curfew that enabled him to slip by unseen into the cemetery - it was going to make his task of digging up that corpse so much easier. Twenty minutes later Edwyn had the hole completely dug and the coffin uncovered, the stench was horrid. Since the Zauberbiest was not normal in terms of decomposition - it took them longer to decompose then ordinary humans and other Wesen. Edwyn pried the wooden lid open and tossed it to the side, the stench became even more revolting, having been trapped in the coffin for four years. Edwyn could see that the corpse still bared the woge, even though the flesh was still rotting away. The flesh was shrunken, the body almost looked completely dried out - the corpse was practically skin and bones. However, some flesh not matter how thin still remained. This body was perfect for what it was going to be used for.

Edwyn made it back home around 9:45pm and was already preparing a large cauldron what was sitting in the fireplace in his kitchen. On the kitchen table he had placed all the ingredients listed except for the body, it just lay on the floor until it was needed. As the cauldron started to bubble, Edwyn began to add the first set of ingredients. First came the four and a half bottles of Ewiges Leben and three Feuer-Unkraut, with those ingredients beginning to mix into the boiling water, the water turned a golden orange in colour. Next came six bottles of Tropfen des Todes, three and one quarter bottles of Essenz der Seele and six Schwarz Rosenblatt. The colour of the water this time began to turn a muddy brown, which reminded Edwyn of the dirt found in the cemetery and which still coated the dug up corpse. The third set of ingredients to be added, one after the other before the mixture could be stirred anti-clockwise twelve times were: five bottles of Cut des Grauens, ten bottles of Prise Angst, one Schweineohren, four and a half Mitternacht Schatten and one bottle of Gewurz Mischungen.

It was at this point that Edwyn began a steady count to twelve as he stirred the contents of the cauldron, which resulted in the combining mixture to give off an almost noxious odour. Edwyn coughed abruptly and a piece of spittle flew off and landed in the cauldron, Edwyn stopped for a moment and considered the possibility for what that tiny bit of saliva could potentially do to the mixture and came to the conclusion that it did not matter and continued mixing. The next and second last ingredient batch consisted of two bottles of Brennnessel Trank and two a half bottles of Ratten-Herzen-Zeichenfolge. After those ingredients rested in the cauldron for three minutes, Edwyn began to put in the last of the ingredients needed; one vial of Reaper's Blut and one vial of Grimms Blut, than he stirred the mixture twice before heaving the dead woged Zauberbiest into his arms and then proceeded to slowly place the corpse into the cauldron.

As the corpse made contact with the bubbling mixture, it turned a deadly black in colour and gave off a stench of death, especially when the corpse began to melt down and slide completely into the cauldron. Edwyn gave a great sigh and flopped down onto one of his kitchen chairs, intending to wait and rest while the mixture in the cauldron, which resembled sludge, to finish the creating process of the Todesengel. Two hours later the contents inside the cauldron began to move in an unexpected way, it rose up and out of the cauldron, revolving in a circular motion. Edwyn felt a chill go down his spine, he looked around and noticed that the candles he had lit were flickering violently and one of them went out.

Edwyn shivered and turned his focus back onto the cauldron, frost was starting to gather around the edges and suddenly it split as if it had been frozen with liquid nitrogen and shattered into pieces. The revolving mixture was starting to take on a humanoid form, legs, arms and a head were coming into being - they were skeletal just like the corpse's had been. Finally, black smoke erupted from the centre of the thick substance, which billowed around the being that was forming and cloaked it in tattered robes, dark as night.

Edwyn by this point in time was jumping up out of his chair and dancing a mad victory dance, thinking madly to himself, 'he had done it!' He alone had successfully created a Todesengel - a real life, living (kind of) breathing (that he wasn't too sure about) Grimm Reaper. Edwyn stopped to gaze at his glorious creation and came to a startling realization, whilst the creature that stood before him looked a lot like a Grimm Reaper there was something different, something wrong. The being was cloaked in a tattered black robe with the hood up and it covered its whole body, even the legs and touched the ground. But the scythe that the Angel of Death was supposed to carry was absent. Moreover, that alone, was which was very wrong with the being before him, if it wasn't a Grimm Reaper - a Todesengel like he had set out to create, then what was it?

Edwyn quickly grabbed his father's book, the Unbekannte Geheimnis and searched for something to tell him what had gone wrong. He found it at the very bottom of the page, "If anything gets added to the mixture before it is fully forming into a Todesengel, a Verlorene Seele will be created instead, beware, and make no mistakes with this volatile combination of ingredients. For a Verlorene Seele is a Lost Soul and not a Grimm Reaper, a Lost Soul steals souls, it doesn't collect them like Death himself is supposed to." Edwyn looked back up and dropped the journal for the Verlorene Seele, which it most certainly was, was right in front of him - reaching out a skeletal like hand towards him. Edwyn felt his insides twist in fear as the creature grabbed a hold of his hair and pulled his face closer towards its own, what was thing going to do to him? Edwyn thought in panic, before the Verlorene Seele pulled back its hood, revealing all black eyes, the eyes that Wesen would see when looking into the eyes of Grimm when they were fully woged and saw his own true reflection.

Edwyn's eyes widened and his mouth opened in a silent scream, that was when the Verlorene Seele moved its head forward and pressed its lipless mouth to Edwyn's and began to suck. Edwyn sagged and tried to claw his way out of the Verlorene Seele's grip, however, his body was growing weak and his mind foggy. His last thought he realised, it was a dying thought - the Verlorene Seele steals souls, and that is what it was doing to him, sucking out his soul through his mouth in a searing kiss. The Verlorene Seele held its first victim and creator for a moment longer before letting the body slip from its nimble fingers, to lay slumped and dead on the floor, with a look of terror frozen upon its face. The Verlorene Seele gazed down at the dead body that used to be Edwyn Albyn de-Yolton in life before fleeing out of the house and into the darkness of the night.

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 **Author's Note:**

So what did you all think? Please Review, it would mean so much. Here are the translations for the German words used.

Ewiges Leben = Eternal life

Tropfen des Todes = Drops of death

Essenz der Seele = Essence of the soul

Cut des Grauens = Cut of horror

Prise Angst = Pinch of fear

Gewurz Mischungen = Herb and blends

Brennnessel Trank = Nettle potion

Feuer-Unkraut = Fire-weed

Schwarz Rosenblatt = Black rose petal

Schweineohren = Pig ears

Mitternacht Schatten = Midnight shadow

Blut = Blood

Todesengel = Angel of death

Verlorene Seele = Lost soul

Seele des Tieres = Soul of the beast

Ratten-Herzen-Zeichenfolge = Rats hearts string

Unbekannte Geheimnis = Unknown secret


	2. Chapter One: An Unusual Crime Scene

**Chapter One: An Unusual Crime Scene**

 **Present Day**

Down at the precinct, Detectives Nick Burkhardt and Hank Griffin had been buried up to their necks for hours under mounds of homicide reports, missing person's files, and lists of aggravated assault charges, restraining orders and unpaid parking tickets.

"Damn, I never knew that there were this many stupid people in Portland." Hank sighed, as he finally completed his third last missing persons report.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Nick replied, signing off his last report, "I mean just listen to this, Jacob Twiller, is 25 years old and has a traineeship with Parkrose Auto and Repair. However, being a reasonable person most of the time, is quick to anger and so had assaulted Mr. Botts after Mr. Botts had started to complain about the fact that his car had been sitting in the mechanics for a week and had yet to be fixed."

"I think that Mr. Botts had every right to complain, if my car was stuck at the mechanics for a week I would be in a lot of trouble." Hank said, as he pushed the last of his reports away and then stretched out his arms to relieve some of the tension between his shoulders.

"With our job, totally, you need a car to get to places and people." Nick agreed, as he rubbed his temples, trying to soothe the growing headache that he was getting. "I just hope we get a case soon, I don't think I can take anymore of this paperwork."

Hank looked up at Nick, and indicated to his head this time and said, "Don't suppose you want to go grab some lunch and a coffee? I also have some Tylenol in the car that will help ease the ache a bit."

Nick placed his hands on the desk and met Hanks eyes, "That would be great, thanks."

Both men got up from their seats, put their jackets on and grabbed their wallets and keys. Then they quickly left the precinct before anyone else could load them up with more paperwork, they made a short stop at Hank's car to get the pain medication.

"Here you go; this will fix you right up, hopefully." Hank said as he fished out a little white bottle that had a red label on the front, stating, 'Extra Strength Tylenol Caplets'.

"Jesus Christ, Hank that will definitely knock it right out, thanks." Nick said as he took the bottle from Hank, unscrewed the top and took two caplets out.

"You're welcome," Hank replied, "You have to be in top shape in our line of work. Just the other day I took a peak at the crime rate reports, and Portland is on the rise."

"Are you kidding?" Nick said, swallowing the caplets, "You'd think with us catching criminals on nearly an everyday basis it would be on the low."

"Yeah, well...My guess is people are getting bolder or stupider." Hank replied, shrugging his shoulders, "Maybe both."

"Hmm..." Nick hummed neutrally, "So where do you want to go for lunch?"

"Let's just go to the local cafe that we usually go to on our breaks." Hank replied, "I'm not fussed, it would probably be best in case we get called back for something that's actually exciting."

At the cafe close to the precinct, Nick and Hank took a table near the window and waited patiently for a waitress to come over. It was not long before a waitress wearing a light blue blouse, knee length black skirt and a white apron came over.

"Hello handsome people, what would you like to order today?" The waitress smiled mischievously, her eyes blinking slowly.

"Awe...How are you today Hannah?" Hank asked, leaning forward and smiling broadly.

"I'm perfect now that you two came in." Hannah the waitress laughed brightly, "Catch any criminals lately?"

Nick was shaking his head slowly to himself, trying to contain a smile when Hank replied, "No, just been filling out paperwork."

"Well that sucks," Hannah commented with a fake pout on her face, "So what would you two lovelies like?"

Hank paused a moment as he looked at the menu and said, "Well, I will have a Michigan salad and a Flat White espresso, thanks." Hannah wrote down his order and then turned to Nick and asked him what he was going to have.

"I will have an Italian sandwich with a Cappuccino, thanks Hannah." Nick replied, grinning, glancing at Hank with one eyebrow raised in amusement.

"Not a problem boys," Hannah winked at them, "I'll have that back to you in just a few minutes." Nick and Hank watched Hannah walk away before they started a conversation.

"You do know that she was flirting with you?" Nick asked, smirking light heartedly.

"Hmmm...Yeah, it is just weird though. She's like ten years younger than me." Hank replied shaking his head, whilst Nick laughed quietly.

Soon Hannah was coming back with their orders, "Here you guys go, enjoy my darlings." With a double chorus of 'We will' from Nick and Hank, Hannah went back to work, serving other customers. Digging heartily into their lunches, Nick and Hank enjoyed the sounds of mid-day traffic, people chattering and kids laughing. It was a few minutes before either of them could open their mouths to speak.

"You know, I wonder just how many Wesen are actually out there." Hank said, starting up a strange to ordinary people conversation.

"As much as I find that topic interesting, I'd hate to know." Nick replied, grinning at Hank, thinking back to all the different kinds of Wesen that they had already encountered, only to know that there were probably more than that in the world. Nick was certain that he and Hank both shared a dislike of Hexenbiests, especially one named Adalind Schade. Hank somehow seemed to be on the same wavelength as Nick and he too, thought back to when Adalind had sexually (he shuddered at the thought) removed Nick's Grimm powers by turning herself into Juliette and tricking him, leaving him defenceless. Pushing those disturbing thoughts aside, Hank moved on to more pleasant ones; like how Nick secretly enjoys being a Grimm again and that celebration party that had been held at Monroe's house and where everyone pretty much got drunk. Hank chuckled silently to himself, that night had been a good one.

"Isn't it nice to be yourself again?" Hank commented, as he took a sip from his Flat White espresso.

Nick looked up from his Cappuccino that he was nursing in both hands on the table and smirked, "Yep, I'd hate to be ordinary, heaven forbid that ever happens again."

Hank glanced at Nick knowingly and stated, "Well, as long as something like you losing your Grimm powers does not come along again, I'm happy. In fact I'm as cool as a cucumber."

Nick chuckled and grins then grimaces, "I agree whole-heartedly with you."

"Hank, I never got around to asking you before," Nick said changing the subject, "but what did you think when you first saw a Wesen woge?" Nick asked curious, clutching his coffee tightly before taking a sip from the delicious drink.

"Well at first I was rather stunned - then I thought I was going out of my mind. However, when you mentioned that I wasn't crazy, it was like I was in front of this massive jigsaw puzzle and I had no idea how big it was or where all the pieces went." Hank replied, closing his eyes trying to call forth the thoughts he had had. "I disbelieved the evidence of my eyes; I stared intently for hours, screwing up my eye muscles against any possible intrusion of light or irrelevant image. It really started to get to me." Hank reopened his eyes and looked steadily at Nick, who looked intently back. "But when I actually saw Monroe change, Rosalee and Budd too...I stared and while I did, knowledge came to me; the knowledge that follows a recognition of fact - of concrete experience bringing with it a widening both of the universe and of the individual understanding of it."

"That's some deep stuff." Nick commented stunned, all it took to get over it all so quick was an epiphany. "Those moments you speak of though, they are wholly vital to normal human beings excepting this sort of thing. For a moment the recogniser is a god, who can actually say 'I am' without a doubt." Hank only laughed joyfully in response, nodding.

Checking his phone to see the time, Nick stared for a short moment, before stating, "Right, lunch break is over. It's time to go back to our cluttered desk." He then grabbed his wallet, pulled out some money and went to the counter to pay for their lunches.

"Well then, we'd better get back to the precinct," Hank replied, "We might have a case."

* * *

As both Nick and Hank were walking back into the precinct heading towards their shared desk, Sergeant Wu swooped around the corner, making both men jump.

"Don't sit down; there's been a bizarre murder at Trillium Lake." Wu said imperiously, "The call just came in, have fun guys."

"Guess we better make our way over to the crime scene then." Nick said nodding thankfully at Wu, "Come on Hank, are you coming Wu?"

"No, no. I'm out on this one," Wu replied smiling, "the Captain wants me to finish up an assault violation case that's been sitting in the draw for a week."

"Don't worry Wu, we will tell you all the gory details later." Hank promised, "You can count on that."

When Nick and Hank arrived at the scene, they were greeted by the Park Ranger, "Hello detectives, my name is Thomas Brown. I would say good day to you, but I don't think that would be appropriate - given the circumstances." Park Ranger Brown paused in which he heaved a heavy sigh, "Trillium Lake," he continued, "beautiful as always, it's a real tragedy."

"Who found the body?" Nick asked as they walked closer to the body that was sprawled on the ground, the leaves touching the body had curled in on themselves and appeared to be frozen.

"That would be Mrs Wendell; she was out walking her dogs when she happened across the body." Mr. Brown replied, pointing to the old lady that was getting her blood pressure checked at the ambulance truck.

"Mrs Wendell has high blood pressure?" Hank asked as he observed the distraught woman and her beloved dogs.

"Yeah, stresses out real easy." The Park Ranger replied, "Poor old bird nearly had a heart-attack when she found him." It was at this time that Hank kneeled down next to the body to get a closer look.

"Who is the victim, do you know?" Nick asked as he walked around the crime scene, frowning as he did so.

"We were able to pull his wallet from his pants pocket; it was practically lying on the ground. This is Mr. Peterson." Ranger Brown replied, as he frowned down at the body, "However, I am at a loss," stated Mr. Brown, moving his arms so that his hands rested on his hips.

"Why is that?" Hank asked intrigued, as they moved a little away from the body.

"It's just, I've never seen a body that looks like this one does, not that I've seen many bodies mind you." Park Ranger Brown said, still frowning confused.

"Looking at him, he does look a little odd." Hank said and crouched down next to the body again, "He looks as though he was frozen to death, as you can see the frostbite around his ears and his finger tips."

"Don't you want to take a closer look at the body, Detective Burkhardt?" The Park Ranger asked, looking at strangely.

"Not at the moment, everyone's first instinct is to ignore the big picture and head directly to the body or the central area where the crime occurred," Nick replied, glancing at the Park Ranger, and continuing his observation of the surrounding area. "But that kind of tunnel vision," Nick spoke again, "can lead you to misread the case. And if you rush in, you risk contaminating or destroying crucial evidence."

Mr. Brown looked shocked at such an assessment and turned to Hank, who looked up at him and said, "You can learn a lot about a body by looking at it, but you can learn a lot more by observing the areas around the body. For example, there might be shoe prints in the dirt or blood on the surrounding plants, that sort of thing."

"That's truly amazing; well I'll leave you two to it then." Mr. Brown said, before walking back to his Jeep.

"Do you see where the suspect entered the scene?" Hank asked Nick, coming over to stand beside him as the body of Mr. Peterson was being loaded up into a van to be taken away to be examined by a forensic pathologist.

"It's strange, no footprints, only the boots that belong to our victim. I don't think this was a normal homicide Hank." Nick replied, putting his hands on his hips.

"You think it's Wesen?" Hank asked, curious.

"It has to be something that doesn't have shoes or anything really, there are no tracks, the birds are dead quiet and our victim appeared to have frostbite, but there was no snow last night or this morning," Nick sighed, "I guess we will be visiting Monroe this afternoon."

* * *

Back at the precinct, Nick and Hank had finished their work for the day when, Hank's phone rang, "Hello, June...Oh yes that's right...Yep I'll see you there...bye." Hank looked up at Nick from his phone and was about to apologize for not being able to come with him to Monroe's house, for he had a date that he had forgotten all about until the phone rang.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Nick said, reading Hank's mind, "You go have fun with June, I'll fill you in later."

"Thanks Nick," Hank managed to say before he was disappearing out of the precinct, to go have his second date with his new girlfriend. Fifteen minutes later Nick arrived at Monroe's house, where Rosalee was serving dinner and welcomed Nick to join them.

"So what's new?" Monroe asked, after swallowing some peas.

"Well, I have this very bizarre case. The suspect doesn't have limbs for all I can tell; no tracks in the dirt except for the victim's and the victim appeared to have frostbite." Nick replied, before he started to chew on his corn kernels.

"How else did the victim appear?" Rosalee asked, intrigued as she cut up her potatoes.

"I'd say he looked to be frozen in a state of fear, his eyes were wide open, mouth open in a terrifying scream and he was very pale and cold." Nick said thinking, "It's weird that the victim was so cold since he had only been dead around three hours."

"I just need you to clarify one thing, was the surrounding plants tinged with frost or just the body?" Monroe asked, as he finished his dinner.

"Only the body and the leaves touching the body were covered in little bits of frost, why?" Nick asked interested, "Do you know what kind of Wesen did this?

"It wasn't Wesen." Monroe replied, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds, then reopening them, "It sounds like we have a Verlorene Seele in town."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** A huge thank you to those who reviewed, it meant so much and it encouraged me to crank out this chapter even though I am sick with the flu. Hope you enjoyed it!


	3. Chapter Two: Verlorene Seele

**Author's Note:** I just want to say thanks to those of you who made this story a favourite and thought it deserved a following. Please review and tell me what you think of the story since it encourages me to continue :) P.S. I don't own anything that I did not create.

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Verlorene Seele**

"What's a Verlorene Seele?" Nick asked as he, Monroe and Rosalee moved into the lounge room.

"The name 'Verlorene Seele' is German for 'Lost Soul', and they mean it literally." Monroe replied, taking a seat beside Rosalee on the two-seater couch.

"Is it some kind of ghost?" Nick asked confused, but intrigued as he too took a seat in the lounge room, facing Monroe and Rosalee.

"No. Ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. A Verlorene Seele is solid in nature, nothing wispy or translucent about it. Come to think of it...It's actually quite hard to describe what it is." Monroe frowned as he tried to think about how he would describe this thing, "This is probably the only way i could describe it...Imagine the personification of death. The Angel of Death is often depicted as a tall pale skeletal figure shrouded in a long, black hooded cloak wielding a scythe. The origins of the Grim Reaper go back far into the past and he was known by many names. In old Celtic folklore he was known as L'Ankou, sometimes called Father Time."

Nick stared unblinkingly at Monroe for a moment, before bursting out, "Its Death personified?" The shock present on his face, his mouth slightly agape, if it were Death himself out there...he shuddered, there would be no stopping it.

"Not exactly, the Verlorene Seele doesn't carry a scythe like Death does, but it does however have the appearance of Death - clothed in a long black hooded robe and is skeletal like." Monroe started to hum and then said, "Death is a psychopomp, which means he is a conductor of people's souls who have passed and escorts them to an afterlife. The Verlorene Seele steals souls, it doesn't come to transport souls onto the next life or whatever."

"Oh thank God for that," Nick said, putting his head in hands for a brief moment and exhaled, he lifted his head, "Is there anything else I should know?"

Rosalee suddenly sat up straight and said, "I will be right back," Monroe gave her a questioning look as she stood and she said, "I just remembered something, back when I was little my grandma gave me a book of fairytales. In one of the stories there was a Wraith like creature, only it was solid and had the appearance of Death. I'll just go and get it." With that, Rosalee went up the stairs to the second floor of the house, in search of her childhood book. When Rosalee came back down stairs ten minutes later, she found the two men in a conversation about something trivial but stopped when they noticed she had returned.

"Here it is," Rosalee said, as she retook her seat on the couch, "Gruselige Märchen, it means Scary Fairytales in English. The story is called the 'Unfortunate Alchemist', so there is this guy in the 14th century who dabbles in potions and tries to create many different things, his greatest accomplishment is also his greatest failure."

"What's this guy's name?" Monroe asked, looking sceptical.

"The only name it gives is Edwyn, Edwyn the Unfortunate Alchemist." Rosalee replied smiling, she had always thought that the story was a little strange. At the time her grandmother had given the book to her, Rosalee could recall her grandma saying, 'Pay close attention to the fifth story, one day it may be of great importance and provide some insight into the intricacies of Life and Death.' Rosalee paused in her musings, how had her grandmother known? Did she, when she was alive know that story was real and that it would come back to haunt them?

"It states in the story that, when Edwyn's greatest creation came to life it was not as he had expected," Rosalee spoke again, "He had tried to create a Todesengel - an Angel of Death, however something went wrong and he ended up creating a Verlorene Seele instead."

"What?!" Nick and Monroe shouted together, Nick looking wide-eyed at both Monroe and Rosalee and Monroe himself didn't look any better.

"Yeah..." Rosalee whispered and flipped through the pages of the book until she found the correct place, "At the end of the story it attempts to explain what exactly a Verlorene Seele is, here listen to this, 'A Verlorene Seele is among the most repelling entities that haunt the shadows of our world. They dwell in the darkest places and revel in despair, if a Verlorene Seele can, it will suck out your soul, leaving you dead.' That's pretty much it." Rosalee finished, with a look of revulsion on her face.

"So basically, you will be left as just nothing, dead gone?" Nick asked, screwing his eyes closed, "Does it tell you how we can kill it?"

"No, as far anyone knows it's the only one of its kind," Rosalee replied, shaking her head in worry, "I'm sorry Nick, if that is what is really out there...I don't know if we will be able to kill it." Nick and Monroe both looked rather ashen themselves listening to that part.

"You know what; I'll get us a round of whiskey before we continue any further." Monroe said, before getting up, going to a cabinet and opening it to pull out a bottle of 1792 Ridgemont Reserve. He also pulled out three small glasses, filled each and then handed them out. Holding his glass up, Monroe toasted, "To soulless, soul-sucking demons!"

After taking a sip from her glass, Rosalee commented, "The creepiest part is that the Verlorene Seele doesn't have eyes, or at least they've never been seen by anyone that's alive. Apparently, it's like staring into the eyes of a Grimm and seeing the infinite darkness there and at the same time feeling the icy touch of Death."

"But surely, there is more to it than that?" Nick questioned, after the shock and disgust wore off, mostly.

"No your right, that's not all." Monroe replied, as Rosalee began to yawn.

Having noticed that both Monroe and Rosalee looked quite tired, Nick decided to check his watch, "It's 9:30pm, do you want me to come back tomorrow to finish talking about this?"

"You can't go now, there's still something that i have to tell you about the Verlorene Seele. You know while it's still fresh in my mind." Monroe protested vigorously, pouring Nick and himself another glass of whiskey, "Do you want another one?" Monroe asked Rosalee, pointing to her glass.

"Uhmm, no. I've got to open the shop early tomorrow, picky customers." Rosalee replied, before getting up and kissing Monroe lightly on the lips, "Goodnight you two." After Rosalee had ascended the stairs, Nick and Monroe got back their conversation about the Verlorene Seele.

"Have you ever heard about the Great Famine of 1315-1317?" Monroe suddenly asked, gazing at Nick.

"No, not really," Nick replied, "But what does that have to do with anything, why is it significant?"

"The Great Famine of 1315-1317 happened not long after the Verlorene Seele was reportedly created," Monroe said, taking another sip from his glass, before going to sit next to Nick, "It was the first of a series of large unexplained crisis that struck Europe early in the fourteenth century. Mostly it involved continental Europe; you know extending east to Russia, south to Italy and Great Britain." Monroe paused for breath and leaned back into the couch, "These places were affected by a famine that caused thousands of deaths and marked a clear end to the growth and prosperity from the 11th to 13th centuries."

"That doesn't sound good, do you think that something like this could happen here and now?" Nick asked concerned, he would be under a lot of pressure if this turned into a full-scale crisis.

"No, it's not good at all, in fact it's terrible!" Monroe replied anxiously, waving his arms about, "Just imagine how the Great Famine started; bad weather in springtime of 1315 and crop failures lasting through 1316 until the summer harvest of 1317. I don't think we would have a famine in our modern day and age, but with the Verlorene Seele lurking about... It might be possible."

"That's just great. What else happened?" Nick questioned, sighing tiredly as Monroe yawned wearily.

"The crisis had consequences for the church, state, European society and for future calamities that would follow in the fourteenth century..." Monroe began again, starting another two-hour conversation.

* * *

"I should get home to Juliette..." Nick muttered as he checked his watch to see that the time was five minutes past midnight, he swayed where he stood when he got up from the couch.

"I really do not think you should drive in this condition, your over tired and we both had too much to drink." Monroe said steadying himself on Nick, already feeling the effects of both sleepiness and alcohol. "Just send her a text message, she'll understand."

"I suppose," Nick, yawned again, "Your right."

"It's a good thing I've done nothing with your room," Monroe replied, "I left it the way you did, since you moved back to your home."

"You didn't have to do that, but thank you." Nick replied as he and Monroe walked up the stairs and into the spare bedroom.

"Well I kind of figured you might need it again at some point, it's always here for you." Monroe said, slurring his words a little.

"Thanks again, goodnight Monroe." Nick replied, before walking to the bed, lying down and falling asleep just to experience a set of weird and horrifying dreams.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** True facts (1315-1317 Famine) were used in this chapter, even if they were slightly tweaked to fit my story. Please review and tell me what you think, it would be highly appreciated. :)


	4. Chapter Three: A Day At The Park

**Chapter Three: A Day At The Park**

Nick was having the weirdest dream - he was running through a forest, but he could not run fast enough. His surroundings a blur of vivid colour, there was a sense of urgency - suddenly on the horizon a tall ancient castle appeared. When he reached the castle he found it empty, the walls were warped and the curtains were of fire. The floor seemed to be moving, as if he was on a ship out at sea. He stumbled around the castle trying to find what was hidden...And then, something huge and black came stalking out of the shadows to his left , his insides froze with terror. He had no idea what this creature was...But there standing before him was a giant dog, it's fur matted and shaggy, a snarl ripping from its bared teeth, it's eyes gleaming red...

Nick awoke with a start panting; his eyes flickered around Monroe's spare bedroom and he sighed in relief when he saw that there was no shaggy black dog with red eyes waiting for him there. He sat up and shook his head to clear the sleepy fog from his brain, once he had done that Nick realized that a blanket had been placed over him. He smiled gratefully to himself, silently thanking Monroe for doing so. Nick then got up, went to the bathroom where he leaned against the basin after he had splashed water onto his face, thinking about the conversation he had had with Monroe and Rosalee the night before. Nick sighed, and finally made his way down the stairs to tell Monroe he was going home for some clean clothes and a shower.

Monroe nodded and said, "No problem, so you got any plans for today?"

"No, not really," Nick replied, "I've got the day off from work, why?"

"Rosalee is closing the shop up early today, so that we can go on a picnic to the park at around 11:00," Monroe answered, "However, if you would like to come you could probably bring Juliette with you if she doesn't have work. What poor soul are you leaving Hank to deal with?"

"Sounds great," Nick, replied, "Jonathan Morales, he started working at the Precinct two months ago. He has mostly been doing deskwork; he does not have any experience being out in the field. I guess he'll get some now though." Nick laughed quietly, "Well I'll see you later."

* * *

When Nick got home, a Juliette who hugged him stiffly and seemed to have forced a smile onto her face greeted him. Nick frowned, why was she so tense? However, he shrugged his concerns off, smiled widely back, and kissed her on the lips. "How was work yesterday?" Nick asked Juliette, as he let go of her.

"It was the same as it usually is," Juliette replied, her face still strangely without emotion, "We had to euthanize Widget the cat, he had an advanced stage of Feline Leukemia. This basically means he had a loss of appetite, infections of the skin, bladder and respiratory tract, seizures, recurring bacterial and viral illnesses and a whole lot of other problems."

"That doesn't sound too good," Nick commented, trying to be sympathetic, "Anything else interesting happen?"

"We had a man bring in a stray dog that had been hit by a car," Juliette replied, frowning as she thought, "And we sent Ripper, a Bullmastiff home after a week's recovery from surgery."

"At least your day had a happy ending," Nick said, as he and Juliette moved to the kitchen to have some breakfast.

"Oh," Juliette said, pretending to look intrigued, "What happened?"

"Well a man apparently had his soul sucked out by a Verlorene Seele," Nick replied, with a slightly disturbed look on his face, "You sure you want to hear all about the gory details?" Nick asked, glancing up at Juliette who immediately plastered an enthusiastic looking smile on her face and nodded. "Well, just remember I gave you the option not to know..." Nick replied, picking up the story were he left off, as he gave details about what happened, he watched Juliette's face for any sign of emotion.

After they had finished breakfast it was 10:00am, and Juliette was scrubbing the dishes whilst Nick dried them. "Monroe mentioned that he and Rosalee were going on a picnic at the park," Nick said to Juliette as he dried a plate, "And he asked if we would like to go with them, so what you say?"

"To going on a picnic at the park?" Juliette said, thinking about it, "Sure, it'll be fun."

"Well, I'm going up to have a shower, if you would like to join me?" Nick asked smiling roguishly, eyes twinkling playfully.

Juliette's eyebrows rose slightly, she appeared to be thinking...That was never a good sign, Nick frowned, losing his playful enthusiasm. Then she responded, "No, sorry. But I've got stuff I need to do before we leave for the park, besides I already had my shower."

"Okay..." Nick replied feeling aghast, having already had a shower had never stopped her before... Had he done something wrong? Turning away from Juliette, he walked up the stairs to the second floor, feeling queasy inside. She never usually rejected him for anything, unless he had insulted her unknowingly, going off previous experiences. But, she usually told him why he was being punished, this time Juliette had not offered up any excuse, which was very unnerving.

* * *

When Nick and Juliette arrived at the park, they found that Monroe and Rosalee had set up the picnic blanket under a tree in the shade and were quietly waving them over. They both walked over and took a seat on the blanket, whilst Rosalee started unpacking the picnic basket that once belonged to Monroe's grandmother.

"So Juliette, how have you been?" Rosalee asked Juliette, as she handed out plates and cutlery.

"I've been good," Juliette replied simply, before picking up some salad with the tongs provided. Rosalee frowned slightly at the short response, decided to change the conversation to something more trivial, and asked a quiet question to Monroe, who snorted.

"Not bloody likely," Monroe chortled softly, "Rosalee would like to know, Nick, what you were dreaming about this morning."

Rosalee blushed, and then said, "It's just that it sounded terrible. I walked past your bedroom and you said, 'Why are the curtains on fire?' and, 'It's hideous,' I'm sorry, I'm just a bit curious."

"No, it's okay," Nick replied, grinning and then said, "Where to start, well I was in a forest and I was running, but I couldn't seem to run fast enough and then there was this castle that I entered and the curtains were on fire." Nick paused and then continued, "Then out of shadows in the dream, this big black dog appeared with red eyes, it growled at me and that's all."

Monroe shivered and rolled his shoulders at the mention of the dog, "Sounds bleeding awful. I remember when I was a child my grandmother had a thing about dreams meaning something, but none of the dreams I had meant anything that I knew of."

"Really?" Nick asked leaning forward a little and Juliette gave the pretence of interest herself, "What would your grandmother have to say about my dream?"

"I don't know to be honest," Monroe replied looking at Nick, frowning as he thought, "I never paid much attention when she started ranting and raving about how the end was nigh... That was how most of those conversations tended to end."

"I could always ask the internet," Rosalee announced taking her phone out of her handbag, "What do you say Nick?"

"Yeah," Nick said nodding, "Go for it."

While Rosalee searched for a suitable dream interpretation website, Nick, Monroe and Juliette started to eat their lunches. "Okay, so I found a pretty good site." Rosalee stated and made a scrolling motion with her thumb on the touch screen of her phone, "It says here that you have to identify what symbols there are in the dream, and then you can easily find out what they mean."

"Okay, symbols would mean the things I noticed then?" Nick asked, thinking back to the dream.

"Yes, don't go into details." Rosalee replied, "Just the things that stood out clearly."

"Well to start off, it would have to be the forest I was running through." Nick said, looking expectantly at Rosalee.

"Here it is." Rosalee stated, "To dream that you are in a forest signifies a transitional phase and that you need to follow your instincts. Alternatively, it indicates that you are feeling weighed down by the demands of your life."

"Well I certainly felt that way before I went to bed last night," Nick commented, thinking about the Verlorene Seele that was lurking about. "The second symbol that I noticed was that I couldn't run fast enough."

Rosalee took a moment to locate the topic and said, "To dream that you are trying to run but cannot make your feet move as fast as you want them to signifies lack of self-esteem and self-confidence."

Nick looked confused at that, "I'm lacking self-esteem and self-confidence? But, I don't feel like that about myself."

"It probably just means in your case," Monroe said thinking, "That it is in relation to a topic that you are unwilling to go near or something..."

"Well that could make sense, I suppose..." Nick mumbled, "The third symbol is the castle."

Rosalee nodded and said, "To see a castle in your dream signifies that you are destined to a position of power and praise for your achievements. Alternatively, the dream indicates your desire to escape from life's daily problems."

"To which I have many," Nick sighed, "I guess that is slightly true, but I wouldn't trade it for the world." Monroe nodded in agreement with him, Juliette however frowned. "The next symbol is fire, the curtains were on fire."

"Oh, this one's a long one." Rosalee stated and then continued, "Depending on the context of your dream, to see fire in your dream can symbolize destruction, passion, desire, illumination, purification, transformation, enlightenment, or anger and that something old is passing and something new is entering into your life."

"Well that's not good," Nick commented displeased, "Sounds like something bad is on its way." At this, Monroe and Rosalee glanced at each other, but no one noticed when Juliette got an ugly look on her face and she glared at Nick for a fraction of a second. "The last symbol would be that nasty black dog with the red eyes." Nick said lastly.

Rosalee scrolled through her phone for moment and then said, "To see a black coloured dog in your dream symbolizes the shadow aspect of a friend."

"Oooh...I wonder who of our friends has a shadowy side." Monroe muttered to himself, "It couldn't be Budd, he's too nice and I don't think it would be Hank or Wu..."

Rosalee continued, once Monroe had stopped muttering, "The dark side of someone close to you is going to be revealed," Rosalee glanced at both Monroe and Nick, and Juliette glared at the other side of the park. "If the dog is vicious and is growling, then it indicates some inner conflict within you. It may also indicate betrayal and untrustworthiness."

"Hmm... Wow." Nick said, "So someone close to me is going to show me their dark side, betray my trust, and reap destruction which will lead me to anger and enlightenment. That's just great."

After their conversation about Nick's disturbing dream, Rosalee packed the picnic basket back up and moved it to the side and all four decided to relax by lying down on the blanket. Monroe was thinking about Nick's dream and his clocks back home which lead him to think about time in general. Rosalee was looking up at the sky and trying to see pictures in the clouds, she hadn't done that it such a long time. Nick was trying not to think about much, but he found himself thinking about the dream and the uneasy feeling it gave him, which somehow he had connected to the uneasiness he had felt that morning when Juliette had said no to a shower with him. He turned his head to look at her and found to his dismay, that Juliette had her jaw clenched in a scowl, she looked furious. Nick's uneasiness changed to fear, was she the one with the dark side? Was she the one who was going to betray him and cause destruction of an untold magnitude? Surely he would have noticed...'but you did' said a voice in the back of his mind, 'She was tense when you hugged this morning, you brushed it off...There were many other instances as well, you just couldn't allow yourself to think something might be wrong.'

Nick sighed deeply and prepared himself, "Hey Juliette," he said, capturing her attention and her expression changed to a pleasantly forced smile as she looked at him and he actually saw it that time, "I can't help but notice that something seems to be wrong, is everything okay?"

Monroe glanced at Rosalee with raised eyebrows in question and then turned to look carefully at both Nick and Juliette, feeling the tension that was rising, he grew tense himself - something was definitely wrong here, he and Rosalee both decided to pretend that they didn't exist and laid there quietly, listening.

"Everything is fine," Juliette, replied, however, there was a hardness in her voice and she would not look at Nick, instead she focused on two children playing with a Soccer ball.

"If everything is so great, then why are you not looking at me?" Nick questioned, he knew this was going to hurt him, but he had to know, "You are so tense around me lately, like I've done something, but I don't know what's going on and it's driving me crazy." Nick said in irritation, gazing out at the pond and then back at Juliette.

"Oh, so suddenly everything is different now? You think I'm avoiding you?" Juliette started bitterly, "Well, maybe this is why..." Juliette broke off what she saying and turned to face Nick head on and proceeded to do something that she shouldn't have been able too...Immediately Nick, Monroe and Rosalee sprang up and away from her in shock. Juliette had just woged, but that was not possible - she was normal. However looking at her now, Nick was clearly seeing a Hexenbiest.

Nick opened his mouth to say something, anything but no sound came out. Eventually he managed to ask, "How did this happen?"

Juliette returned her face to normal and replied angrily, "Some short time after us getting your Grimm back, Sean Renard's mother did say that there might be some side effects, but this?" Juliette then suddenly stood up, "It's your entire fault." She hissed at Nick and took off towards her car.

Nick did not follow her, in fact, he was too stunned to move, and he suddenly had a whirring noise coming from inside his brain that would not stop. Nick looked over at both Monroe and Rosalee, who both shared a growing look of dread on their faces.

"Well... At least we know what her problem is now, so we can find a way to fix it." Monroe stated blithely trying to be hopeful, hesitantly he continued, "It looks like your dream told the future." Monroe looked at the ground in contemplation.

"I don't know Monroe..." Nick replied, understandably shaken, "The way she was angry, it was as if she knew something that I didn't."

"You better get her tell you everything Nick," Rosalee said, stepping forward and placing her hand on his right arm, concern coloured her voice, "Meanwhile, Monroe and I will try our hardest to find a cure or something for Juliette."

"Thanks, you guys." Nick sighed heavily, he felt as though the weight of ten worlds had just landed on top of him and he was struggling to stand - Not only did he have a horrifying case at work, a Verlorene Seele he had to deal with and now Juliette had somehow transformed into a Hexenbiest, life couldn't get any harder could it?

* * *

 **Author's Note:** So what do you guys think about this chapter? It had a curve ball didn't it? Poor Nick, I'm so bad...Oh well. :) Please Review, I love reviews.


	5. Chapter Four: A Discovery and Then Some

**Chapter Four: A Discovery and Then Some**

After Nick had scoured the streets of Portland for half an hour to see if he could find where Juliette had gone, he had decided to go home. She had to come home at some point didn't she? Nick thought angrily as he pulled up outside the front of his house, the shock was just starting to wear off. He could not believe that Juliette would leave something so vital and important as this to herself. If she had told him sooner, like when she found out, he wouldn't have been nearly as irritated and confused as he was at the moment, hell he probably wouldn't have been angry at all.

When he entered the house, Nick made a beeline straight for the kitchen and pulled out a can of soda from the fridge. He then found his way to the lounge room and sat down on the couch, placing his soda on the coffee table, he knew that he had to calm down before he faced Juliette. Rosalee had told him shortly before he had left the park in pursuit of Juliette that, the anger he was currently experiencing was from a type of psychological trauma. Even though he hadn't been physically harmed in any way, his psyche was hurting - it was the result of an overwhelming stress that exceeded his ability to cope in that moment. 'Of course,' Nick thought, 'your girlfriend suddenly turning into a Hexenbiest would do that, especially if your girlfriend had apparently known for some time, whilst you were left in the dark about it.' He laughed bitterly, grabbed his soda can and opened the top, before taking a sip of the cooling beverage.

Nick didn't know when Juliette would be home, so he settled himself into the couch and grabbed his TV remote. He vaguely thought about calling her phone, but realized that she probably wouldn't answer and would most likely lead to her being more incensed than before. Flicking through the channels on the TV, he found that the ESPN channel had a re-run of a SportsCentury episode starting and decided to half-heartedly watch the program. William "Bill" Nack's voice sounded as Nick took a sip from his soda, 'He had a kind of princely quality about him...' As Nick watched he slowly fell into a kind of stupor, the anger faded completely for the time being. The people on the screen were apparently talking about a famous American racehorse, but Nick only heard snippets of what they said as the time dragged on. 'His career began without fanfare...had he been handled by someone other than flawed human beings...' At some point during the program, Nick had fallen asleep and was abruptly awoken by the sound of a car engine and a door being closed. He turned the TV off and checked the time, it was 8:10pm and Juliette had just walked in through the front door.

Nick and Juliette both stared at each other for a brief moment, before Juliette averted her gaze and said in a deceptively calm voice, "We need to talk."

"Yes, we do." Nick swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat, "I went looking for you, after you left the park. Where were you?"

"That's really none of your business anymore," Juliette replied, her voice sounded like a knife, her eyes flashed angrily.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked quietly, he did not like where this conversation seemed to be going.

"I'm not staying here," Juliette replied slowly, choosing her words carefully, "In fact, I think it's best if I don't come back after this."

"What!? But Juliette," Nick began trying to salvage the situation, "You don't need to go anywhere! You can stay, we'll find away to fix this..." He trailed off at the look she was giving him.

"I don't think you understand, Nick," Juliette pierced him with an irritated look; "I don't want to stay."

"So...You're just going to move out?" Nick asked, his arms seemed to hang limply at his sides and a frown marred his face.

"Yes, and I also think it would be for the best if," Juliette paused for a moment, as she straightened herself up, and then she continued, "We were not together. After all, what I've got is forever and I don't think you could just close your eyes, take off your clothes and jump into bed with me, do you?"

Nick, who had been frowning at the floor up until this point, shot his eyes back up and stared at her in even more shock, not only was she leaving the house, she was also leaving him? They could fix this, he was sure of it. However, Juliette seemed determined that wasn't going to happen and seemed to have some knowledge about the subject of her condition that he didn't know. "Juliette..." Nick trailed off and cast his eyes away to look at a vase sitting on a side table.

"You see that?" Juliette bit out nastily, "You can't even look at me anymore, is it really that revolting? At first I thought I could get this fixed, but after seeing Henrietta and her telling me it was irreversible, I guess I just decided I'd rather live with it."

"Who is Henrietta?" Nick questioned, he had certainly never heard that name before, and he struggled with the concept of how Juliette would know this person.

"Oh, she's only the local Hexenbiest that Sean introduced me to," Juliette replied casually, somewhat calmer than before, like she was discussing the weather. However, Nick knew that appearances could be deceiving.

"I'm not giving up, Juliette. Monroe and Rosalee are looking for a way to solve this." Nick said, trying to reason with her.

"Maybe..." Juliette's face turned an ugly red colour and her eyes narrowed dangerously, "Everyone should just stop trying to help, I like this power Nick. And that right there is why you would never give up being a Grimm by choice; you loved that power more than me."

"Juliette, that's not true!" Nick exclaimed immediately, "Being a Grimm is who I am, what I was born to be. That had no bearing over whether or not I loved you." Nick protested, taking a step toward her, but stopped when Juliette glared at him menacingly.

"Please, don't try to deny it," Juliette sneered, "Once you've seen it, tasted it...there is no going back and for that I guess I can't blame you. But I do blame you for how I ended up this way, but at the same time I really should thank you - I'm really having the time of my life." When Juliette finished, Nick cringed inwardly.

After the confrontation, Nick went and hid in the kitchen whilst Juliette went about collecting the things she wanted and throwing them into a suitcase, shortly before she promptly left without saying goodbye. Nick sighed and growled low in his throat as he internally processed all that had happened. That was when Nick's phone rang, startling him out of the gloom that had settled around him.

"Hello?" Nick asked, his interest peaked when he learned it was Monroe on the other end, "Did you find anything that could help Juliette?" Nick paused briefly, "Oh, nothing yet...But you found something interesting that might help with the Verlorene Seele instead? Okay no worries I'll meet you at the Spice Shop."

* * *

After arriving at the Spice Shop, Nick found Monroe and Rosalee at a cluttered workbench, surrounded by books of all kinds. Nick could see books that were titled; Darkness vs. Light in the Wesen World, The Alchemists Approach, A Hexenbiest's Brew and many others relating to the Wesen world, however Rosalee wasn't holding one of those seemingly ancient, parchment filled, and sometimes blood-encrusted books. She was holding a relatively new book, a book that no Wesen or Grimm had written. The hardback book with slightly yellowed pages had only been in storage for a few years...So what made this ordinary book so special? Could it really hold the key to finding a way to destroy the Verlorene Seele? It certainly seemed unlikely. Rosalee was looking at him with a smile that every now and then would turn into a frown.

"Okay, give it to me, what is the good news?" Nick asked, he could see Monroe practically bouncing in his seat at the table with excitement and he grinned.

"You might want to pull up a seat before I start," Rosalee recommended to Nick as she sat down herself. "Well I was thinking about how powerful the Verlorene Seele seemed to be and I had a thought, you would need something as equally powerful if not more to destroy it. So I started searching for an object that could potentially do the job, in the books that I have...and Nick I found one...the only problem is that it's a myth supposedly."

"What is the object?" Nick whispered, he had no idea why he did, but he suddenly felt like something astronomical was going to be revealed.

"A Flaming Sword!" Monroe exclaimed excitedly, when Nick only stared at Monroe not comprehending what was so miraculous about a sword, Monroe continued by saying, "A flaming Sword is a sword with some supernatural power; Flaming Swords have existed in legend and myth for thousands of years."

Then Rosalee burst in as well, "For example; Dyrnwyn, the sword that belonged to Rhydderch Hael, that when drawn blazed with fire, if it were drawn by a worthy person the fire would help with their cause, however, if drawn by someone who was unworthy its fire would burn them." Rosalee paused for breath and then continued, "Swords like Durendal, said to be the sharpest sword in all existence or Egeking, a sword of supernatural character."

Before Nick could voice his opinion on how ludicrous this all sounded, Monroe was talking again, "In regards to Egeking, this book here states, _'There was no fault with Egeking, but for want of grace and governinge, may loose a kingdom and a king.'_ The book also mentions another sword called Tyrfing, a sword that would never miss a stroke, would never rust and would cut through stone and iron and it shone and gleamed like fire."

"That sounds really thrilling," Nick began, his eyes narrowed in thought, "But you did say it was a myth, do you have any proof such a sword exists?"

"Well there is a sword called Joyeuse that once belonged to Charlemagne," Rosalee replied, smiling brightly, "Joyeuse was allegedly lost in a battle, however, a sword identified as being Charlemagne's was carried in front of the Coronation processionals for French kings, for the first time in 1270 and for the last time in 1824."

"The sword was kept in the Saint Denis Basilica since 1505," Monroe piped up, smiling broadly as he peered at the open book before him, "And it was moved to the Louvre in 1793. However, some people have argued that the sword was replaced by a modern replica in 1804 when the sword was prepared for the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte."

"Okay, then..." Nick said, rubbing the sides of his eyes with his left hand, "A sword exists, possibly. As long as it's not King Arthur's sword, I think I'll be okay."

"Actually..." Rosalee said laughing when Nick groaned, "I have a theory about that as well. You see I think these Flaming Swords are one in the same, there are not many of them as people would like to believe, there is only one and that is what makes it so special."

"King Arthur's Excalibur, was attributed with magical powers," Monroe continued on for Rosalee, "In fact we have come to the conclusion that it is connected with the Holy Grail."

"The Holy Grail?" Nick questioned in stunned disbelief, "Isn't it common belief that the Grail is a cup that was held supposedly by Christ at the last supper?"

"Yes, however," Rosalee paused and then said, "My theory is that the Grail was never a cup, but a sword. A sword so powerful if in the right hands could do great good, but in the wrong hands could do great evil."

"But I'm still confused..." Nick said slowly, trying to wrap his head around the notion, "How does this connect to King Arthur?"

"Theoretically speaking," Monroe spoke up, "We all know that legends and myths are loosely based on real events, however exaggerated. But, what if this account wasn't though? Let's say that King Arthur was one of the Royals like Sean Renard, only it was way back then, that would explain why he isn't recorded as being fact in the normal people's records."

"You know that strangely is making sense," Nick replied, rubbing his temples, "Now that we have established that a supernatural sword might potentially exist, going by whatever name it's been given, whether it's Dyrnwyn, Egeking or Excalibur we still have to find it in order to kill the Verlorene Seele!"

Nick had chatted lightly with Monroe and Rosalee after their discovery of the sword, had told them all about how Juliette split with him and everything else. However it was getting late and he bid them goodnight and decided to go back home, he was just getting back into his car when a memory came back to him in a flash. It was his mother telling him about the seven keys, about how whatever they unlocked people would kill for...How seven of the Knights Templar were his ancestor's - Grimms themselves and how they had obtained a treasure more powerful than any in existence and locked it away. 'What if', a thought unbidden crept into his mind, 'the sword Joyeuse was never carried in front of the French kings, what if the whole time it had been a fake? In addition, the real sword whatever its true name was, was in fact the Holy Grail that people would kill to covet? What if the Knights Templar so known to have searched long and hard for the Holy Grail, had found it? That they believed the power this treasure possessed should not be in the hands of mere mortals and locked it away with seven keys...' Nick sighed, this just went up a level didn't it? Life just could never be simple could it?

* * *

 **Author's Note:** To my loyal readers, tell me how did you like this twist? Not only have I turned the (Spoiler Alert) magic wand thingy that Nick finds in season 5 into a Flaming Sword, it is now the Holy Grail that people would kill to possess and it is also the sword that was once wielded by King Arthur himself! I'm such a badass, somehow I managed to make the facts fit...in any case I needed a truly amazing weapon to kill the Verlorene Seele. So, leave a review and let me know what you think. :)


	6. Chapter Five: The Voynich Manuscript

**Chapter Five: The Voynich Manuscript**

The next day at 11:00am Hank walked into the Spice Shop and by a way of greeting said to everyone, "I'm really glad it's the weekend."

"Hi Hank, how is everyone doing at the Precinct?" Nick asked immediately, he was not the only one wondering if there had been any new victims of the Verlorene Seele. Monroe and Rosalee were looking at Hank with interest as he replied.

"Well, to start off with my temporary partner Jonathan Morales...he had a nervous breakdown after seeing two dead bodies. Nick...their faces were frozen in fear just like the first victim, frost tinged their hands...it doesn't make sense," Hank paused to gather his wits and continued, "The captain's sending out a manhunt to find this guy, Wu is...Just being Wu."

"Who were the victims?" Nick asked, whilst Monroe and Rosalee got worried looks on their faces, hopefully it was not someone they knew.

"A Mr. Nathan Clyde who worked at Portland Penny Diner and a Miss Fiona Morgan who worked at the Portland International Airport," Hank replied, frowning, "Apparently they were meeting each other to have romantic activities when they were killed. In any case Mrs. Dana Clyde said to police when asked if she knew about the affair, 'If the cheating bastards dead, he bloody well deserved it the mongrel,' hmm guess she thought he had it coming."

"That's not good," Nick replied, Monroe and Rosalee were trying to keep a straight face - circumstances being as they were. The two deaths were not in any way funny, however, it was the irony of karma and Mrs. Clyde's statement that threatened to split their faces into grins.

"Enough about my day," Hank said, shaking his head a little, "What about yours?"

The fleeting lightness that had permeated the air vanished instantly, Nick started to frown and as Monroe shook his head, Rosalee said, "I think we are all really glad that it's the weekend." Rosalee was leaning back against the counter that had an assortment of jars on it, she had her arms crossed and Hank got the impression that she and the others were really struggling with something.

"Do I even want to know?" Hank asked, observing all of their faces, he noticed that as he asked his question they all gave an almost imperceptible sigh.

Rosalee immediately shook her head silently, which gave Hank the knowledge that whatever it was, it was bad. However, when Monroe put a hand up to his face in the way that he usually did when he was stressed, Hank knew it was worse than bad and Nick just cemented the dread growing in his gut by glancing around the room and finally settling for a convenient spot on the floor.

"What happened? Who got hurt?" Hank asked concernedly, looking at Nick.

"Juliette and I broke up." Nick offered quietly, his stance was stiff and his eyes seemed a little dull.

Hank's eyes widened, "Why? You're so good together." Hank couldn't understand it, Nick had been with Juliette ever since he joined the police force, ever since they had met, the very idea of them not together was inconceivable.

"Apparently, we are not so good for one another anymore," Nick looked a little sad for a moment, then smiled bitterly, "Since she became a Hexenbiest."

"I'm sorry, she became a what?" Hank said incredulously, he had not been expecting that, "When did this happen?"

"A while back I dare say, Juliette didn't tell me until yesterday," Nick replied, sighing he continued, "I'm not going to go into the details, but she did tell me that she quite liked her new found powers." Nick finished with his face showing no discernible emotions, he was closing himself off from the situation, Hank could tell, he had seen Nick do it only once before, although they had had a grisly case at the time, Nick was coping with the situation the best way he could, so that he could think clearly - objectively.

"We were going to spend some time at the trailer," Monroe spoke up for the first time since the conversation started, "If you would like to come?"

"Yeah absolutely, I love spending time at the trailer," Hank agreed happily as he could, "I really hope we find something in there that can help with our case, did you find out what was killing those people? What type of Wesen was it?"

"Surprisingly, It's not a Wesen exactly," Nick replied and then proceeded to tell Hank all about the Verlorene Seele - the full embodied definition of a lost soul, and of how they had discovered through literary text a weapon that could potentially kill the soul snatching monster. The only catch being they had to go on a wild goose chase to find said weapon.

* * *

Two hours later, Nick, Hank and Monroe were sitting amongst piles of ancient tomes, journals and other various books that had arrived when Nick's Aunt Marie Kessler had come to Portland. All three men had fond memories of first exploring the trailer, when they had been introduced to it. The recently initiated Sergeant Wu, often spent his nights here pouring over books, as if they were a part of some new epic adventure. From floor to roof, the trailer was packed with a variety of different things; ranging from potions, poisons and strange ingredients to a cupboard that held an assortment of weapons and Monroe's favourite Siegbarste Gewehr - the ogre gun. The priceless artifacts contained within, collected over generations was a treasure trove of history that Nick and his friends relied heavily on from time to time - to hold the answers they needed.

"I really enjoy coming here, you know? Being surrounded by all this history," Monroe commented as he flipped through the pages of a book whose title had faded completely. "I mean, I'm not really sure what book I'm reading, but it says here that your ancestors were at the sacking of Rome in 410 AD by Alaric, the leader of the Visigoths and they were there when the last Roman Emperor was deposed in 476 AD."

"I know. This place is such an escape from out there," Nick gestured widely with his arm, pointing to somewhere far beyond the trailer, to a place where only worries and reality existed. Nick was determined that those worries with Juliette and all those past troubles stayed away from this place, for it wasn't just a trailer that held all his Aunt Marie's things - it was the one place where he could truly be himself. "You know, I think you are reading my family's history book, or at least one of them."

Hank hummed in agreement with the both of them, but it wasn't long before he found something of interest in the journal he was looking at. The aged parchment revealed a title of a book that was dated to have existed a very long time ago: The Unbekannte Geheimnis, however it wasn't the title of the book that called to him, but the mention of the creature they needed to get rid of.

"Hey, I think I got something, listen to this," Hank said suddenly, to which both Nick and Monroe looked up from their own books, "The Verlorene Seele was created from a supposed recipe in the book entitled The Unbekannte Geheimnis, there is only one copy of the book that is known to be in existence. However, my sources have revealed that similar books have appeared throughout history. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that it is the same. It was on my journey to the British Isles that I discovered a title that the book also went by: The Voynich Manuscript. The normal people are baffled, they cannot decipher the book's code or find which language it comes from. I fear I am not the only one searching for it, and am certain my movements are being tracked. If I do not update in the next ten hours I have been caught and I am most likely dead...There is no update guys." Hank continued turning the pages to find more information, however, there was none.

"The Voynich Manuscript, you say?" Monroe commented intrigued, "The most powerful book has been underneath everyone's noses all this time?"

"I've never heard of it, do you know what it is?" Nick asked as he angled his entire body to face Monroe.

"I don't know everything about the Manuscript, but as you know, a part from my love of clocks and time, is reading and naturally I'd be interested in a book nobody could read," Monroe explained gently, trying to keep the fact database in him contained, but it eventually leaked through. "The overall impression given by what remains of the Manuscript is that it was used as a pharmacopoeia or to address issues in medieval medicine. However, the puzzling illustrations in the book have fuelled a debate about the book's origins."

"So it would be a safe bet to say that it's very old?" Hank asked, curiously, "As in being old enough to have been used in the creation of the Verlorene Seele?"

"Old? Its way older than old, it's ancient!" Monroe exclaimed in reply, "The earliest historical information about the Manuscript came supposedly from a letter that was left inside the cover, which was written in 1666, however, to know more about what the letter contained or the book we would have to go to where it's located."

"Okay, then. Where is the Voynich Manuscript located?" Nick asked, his eyebrows raised and adventure sparked in his eyes, he revelled in this kind of thing. Nick was sure that the wonder and the amazement he often felt were the best parts about being a Grimm.

"The Voynich Manuscript was donated by Hans P. Kraus to the Yale University's Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969." Monroe replied, "I guess we are up for a small journey, yeah?"

"Alright then, let's go see it," Nick jumped up smiling, "You want to come Hank?"

"I would very much like to," Hank replied, "But, I better stay in Portland and hold down the fort until you get back, I'll tell the Captain what we've found out about the case and where you have gone."

"Thanks Hank," Nick replied, before the three men exited the trailer and locked up. "Monroe you better call Rosalee and let her know what we are doing."

"That's a very good idea," Monroe nodded seriously, quickly grabbing his cell phone to call his wife. "Are you going to call...?"

"No." Nick replied instantly, cutting off that question and putting an end to the topic.

* * *

Nick and Monroe made it to their destination by nightfall and knew that the University would be closed at the current time, so they decided to find a hotel nearby. Driving to the New Haven hotel, Nick could see the gold lettering spelling out the hotel name on the side of the building and the distinctive circle window at the very top, after searching the parking lot, he found only one available parking spot. Nick gave Monroe a nudge to the shoulder to wake him up, "Come on, we're at the hotel."

"Right, right behind ya." Monroe replied groggily, getting out of the car and following Nick to the hotel doors and then to the reception desk.

The young woman, probably in her early twenties, sprung to life behind the desk straightening her uniform, "Hello gentlemen, how may I help you?"

"We would like two rooms please," Nick said, yawning tiredly and scratching the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry Sir, but we only have one available room left, however it has two double beds, will that room be alright for you two?" The receptionist smiled apologetically.

Nick glanced at Monroe, "What do you think? Is that okay?" Monroe just nodded in reply, he was too tired and wanted more than anything to crawl into a bed, "Yeah, we'll take it." Nick said, turning back to the girl.

"Alright, you are all set," The young woman said, clicking away on the computer with her mouse, before handing over the keys to room 117. They then headed straight for their room, after paying and when they stumbled in through the doorway both Nick and Monroe were already thinking about tomorrow, thoughts turned into dreams as they made their way to their respective beds. The room they were staying in for the night was a standard two double-bed room, the double beds were dressed and made in white doona covers that both contained a deep blue sash across them, and the walls were a light creamy yellow in colour.

"I didn't know it would take that long to get to New Haven, Connecticut." Nick mumbled as he rolled over in his bed to face Monroe's.

"Its fine Nick, you know I wanted to come." Monroe replied, as he to rolled over to face Nick.

* * *

The next morning, both Nick and Monroe woke up at around 9:00am and went to get some breakfast before heading over to the university. After a filling breakfast that consisted of eggs, tomato's and toast they made their way over to the university where they were greeted by Professor Dexter Del Bass, "Hello, how may I help you two gentlemen?"

"We were wondering if we could take a look at the Voynich Manuscript that is archived in the Beineke Rare Books and Manuscript Library." Monroe replied, silently praying that that they would be allowed to see it.

"Normally, when people ask to see the Manuscript they have a hidden agenda," Professor Del Bass said softly, "Which is why we generally have people make appointments to see the Library, however I can tell that you two are merely curious and perhaps think that you might be able to decipher the code it's written in. Though I have to ask, what is your reasoning for wanting to see the Manuscript?"

"Back home," Nick replied, "I recently obtained some really old books from my Aunt Marie, she gave them to me before she died. She mentioned that some of them were hundreds of years old, the things is, I was going through some of them the other day and one of the books mentioned the Manuscript."

The Professor looked at Nick intensely and asked, "What was this book entitled and what did it say?"

"The book was entitled 'Ungewohnliche Artefakte' which is German for 'Unusual Artefacts'. I'm not exactly sure when it was written." Nick started to explain, "The book had journal entries in it that were written by an ancestor of mine, who was searching for the Voynich Manuscript. It basically said that this ancestor of mine had been tracking down this book for a good number of years, however sadly he never got to see it before he tragically died."

"You were curious, weren't you?" The Professor said, a small smile forming in his proud face, "You were curious about the world in which your ancestor lived and why he spent his life searching for the Manuscript." Nick and Monroe both nodded, "You want to see the Manuscript? I will show it to you," Professor Del Bass said determinedly, "luckily for you, I'm in charge of the Beineke Rare Books and Manuscript Library here at the University. We had just gotten a new shipment of books dated to be from the 1600's yesterday and I was just going over to make sure everything was in order."

"Thank you so much, Sir. It's an honour to go see the archives," Monroe said, shaking hands with the Professor and Nick smiled cheerily at his behaviour, since walking to the Library was going to take five minutes from where they were, Nick and Monroe decided to pepper the Professor with questions about the strange book they were going to see. "So, what can you tell us about the Manuscript?"

"The Voynich Manuscript was named after Wilfred Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912," the Professor said in reply, "the Manuscript itself has been studied by professional and amateur cryptographers, no one yet however unfortunate has managed in deciphering the text." Professor Del Bass paused for breath before he continued, "It keeps the mystery of meaning and origin of the Manuscript in popular imagination. For as far as we can tell the Voynich Manuscript is an illustrated codex, hand-written in an unknown writing system."

"The Manuscript, is it still in good condition?" Nick asked curious, "I mean after all these years?"

"Some of the pages are missing, but 240 remain." The professor replied, as they reached the Library, which resembled a large metal container from the outside and was situated across from the Law School building.

"Gentlemen, would you please wait here a moment?" Professor Del Bass asked as he walked into his office in the Library with Nick and Monroe behind him and they agreed, "I'm just going to check on the deliveries that came yesterday and I will be back."

"We are so close, Nick." Monroe commented, sitting in one of the seats in front of the Professor's desk, he motioned with his thumb and forefinger an inch.

"I know," Nick murmured, "One step closer to solving this case." He sighed, and then took the other seat in front of the desk to wait for the Professor to come back.

After waiting for ten minutes, the Professor came back and motioned for Nick and Monroe to follow him, "Come with me, I will take you to the Manuscript now."

When the trio arrived at a secluded room, Nick and Monroe were led inside where they were told to take a seat at a study desk and the Professor went to a draw that had to be unlocked with a password combination. He then pulled out a very old book that was faded around the edges - the vellum pages slightly exposed and tattered.

Turning to the two men that were seated, Professor Del Bass said, "The first section of the book is almost certainly herbal, but attempts to identify the plants, either with actual specimens or with the stylized drawings of contemporary herbals have largely failed." The Professor paused to take a breath and then he too took a seat, placing the book carefully in the middle of the desk, "The basins and tubes in the biological section are sometimes interpreted as implying a connection to alchemy, yet bear little obvious resemblance to the alchemical equipment of the period in which it was written."

"That is so interesting," Monroe commented, "I read somewhere that a letter was found with the book in 1666, is that correct?"

"That would be correct, the letter was written and sent by Joannes Marcus to Athanasius Kircher," the Professor replied, "the letter claims that the book once belonged to Emperor Rudolph II, who lived between 1552 and 1612. The book shortly after that is reported to have been given to Jacobus Horcicky de Tepenecz, the head of Rudolph's botanical gardens in Prague." Professor Del Bass finished, folding his arms on the desk.

"Is that letter still in existence?" Nick suddenly asked, desperate to see what the letter contained.

"Yes, it is." The Professor replied as he got up from his chair, went to another draw, and withdrew a faded piece of parchment, "I trust that I can leave you two alone with the Manuscript?" He gestured to Nick and Monroe and handed them the letter gently.

"Yes, Sir." Nick and Monroe immediately nodded affirming that they were trustworthy.

"Good," The Professor said, "I have to go give a lecture on ritual complexes and writing, ancient civilizations, and museum studies to my Archaeology class." The Professor grabbed the necessary items he would need and headed off.

"You ready to read that letter?" Nick asked Monroe, smiling widely and Monroe nodded eagerly, "Alright then, the letter reads:

 _Reverend and distinguished sir, Father in Christ: This book, bequeathed to me by an intimate friend, I destined for you, my dear Athanasius, I was convinced that it could be read by no one except yourself. The former owner of the book asked your opinion by letter, copying and sending you a portion of the book from which he believed you would be able to read the remainder, but he at that time refused to send the book itself._

 _To it's deciphering he devoted unflagging toil, as is apparent from attempts of his which I send you herewith, and he relinquished hope only with his life. But his toil was in vain, for such sphinxes as these obey no one but their master, Kircher. Accept now this token, such as it is and long overdue though it might be, of my affection for you, and burst through its bars, if there are any, with your wonted success._

 _Dr. Raphael, a tutor in the Bohemian language to Ferdinand III, then King of Bohemia, told me the said book belonged to the Emperor Rudolph and that he presented to the beaver who bought him the book 600 ducats. He believed the author to be Rodger Bacon, the Englishman. On this point I suspend judgement; it is your place to define for us what view we should take thereon to whose favour and kindness I unreservedly commit myself and remain,_

 _\- At the command of your Reverence, Joannes Marcus Marci of Cronland Prague, 19th August, 1666_

"And that is the end of the letter." Nick said, finishing the letter.

"That sounded beautiful." Monroe commented, if only people still wrote like that today, "But my main concern is who the Reverend Athanasius Kircher was and why did this Joannes Marcus Marci of Cronland believe that he could read the Manuscript?"

"This is just a hunch..." Nick said in reply, "But what if the Manuscript can only be read by a Hexenbiest?"

"What, you mean like how they can do that thing with the words that jumble across the page after you read them?" Monroe asked curiously, "That could make sense, if you remember that the creator of the Verlorene Seele was a Zauberbiest which is a male Hexenbiest..."

"In any case," Nick commented, "I am not asking Juliette to translate it."

"We can't take the book with us," Monroe said, gesturing to the book with his hand, "So we better take some photos of the pages and the letter with our phones to take home." Both Nick and Monroe retrieved their phones from their pockets and started snapping away.

Just as they were closing the book, something caught Nick's eye. It was a word, written in English in tiny writing in the corner of the back cover. Taking a closer look, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, clearly written was: Constantinople. Now that was familiar, where had he heard that word before? Nick thought furiously for a moment and then it came to him, Constantinople had something to do with the seven keys that everyone was trying to find, he now had two of them... The keys formed a map when put together, a treasure map that led to something very valuable - like a sword...and without hesitation, Nick snapped a photo of that piece of evidence with his phone.


	7. Chapter Six: Adalind Arrives

**Author's Note:** I give my apologies to everyone that was waiting on another chapter, and expecting one a long time ago. However, all I can say is this: LIFE HAPPENS, I wish it didn't happen sometimes. It started as Writer's Block, then Christmas was here and then my Aunt died on my Mum's 50th birthday...yeah...Life's a Bitch. SO...Without further ado here is Chapter Six finally!

* * *

 **Chapter Six: Adalind Arrives**

At Kronenberg Castle which was situated in a mountainous area in Vienna, Austria. Viktor, the King that resided there, awaked Adalind by shaking her shoulder roughly and stated when she opened her eyes that they were going to Portland.

"I'm never going back, you cannot make me!" Adalind immediately responded, fear gripping her insides, "The Grimm and his friends they'll kill me."

"Perhaps you should have thought about that before pulling all those nasty little tricks," Viktor replied silkily, "Especially getting rid of the Grimm's powers, from what I know that must have been something..." Viktor trailed off; when he saw the glower that Adalind was sending him. "Nevertheless, you needn't worry too much," Viktor continued after a slight pause, "You won't be going alone, Rispoli and I will be accompanying you."

"Is that supposed to reassure me?" Adalind asked sarcastically, "Somehow, I get the feeling I won't be very safe."

Viktor glared at her and replied, "The only way to get Diana, your daughter back is to go to Portland, where the people who made her disappear are and are the only connection to her whereabouts." Viktor paused to give Adalind a meaningful look, "You just keep that in mind, and after all...you would do anything to find your daughter wouldn't you?"

"But my baby isn't even in Portland," Adalind stated looking at Viktor as if he had lost his mind, "She is with the Grimm's mother - Kelly Burkhardt."

"We already know this, however, attempts to locate Kelly Burkhardt are inconclusive," Viktor replied tersely, "she is adept at hiding and as it stands she won't be found unless she wants to be. But she can be contacted by the people living in Portland and that is why we are going, so pack your bags Miss Schade the plane leaves in an hour's time," King Viktor stated in a commanding tone, before turning swiftly and leaving the room.

"Great," Adalind mumbled to herself, as she started to pack what little things she had into a suitcase, "Absolutely not looking forward to this."

The flight from Vienna took 20 hours and 52 minutes exactly, Adalind had counted and getting off that plane had come as a huge relief, not only to her stiff legs but to her sanity as well. There was only so much a person could take listening to Viktor and Rispoli talk about official business meetings that had taken place in the past and how they had turned out to be 'complete disasters' or about his cousin Eric Renard and the 'mistakes' that he had made. Prince Eric Renard had been the half-brother of Sean Renard, he had been influential and powerful before his untimely death. Adalind shook herself and walked with Viktor and Rispoli to a black shiny car with darkly tinted windows, when they were seated in the back of the car the driver asked, "Wo zu meinem Konig?"

Viktor glanced up at the driver for a moment and smiled, "The Hotel deLuxe," and then he said in German, "Wie geht's deiner familie?"

As they were pulling away from the Airport the driver replied, "Nun, mein sohn hat sich verheiratet und meine frau hat stricken genommen." To which Viktor said, "Sehr gut."

After they had arrived at the Hotel deLuxe, Viktor was showing Adalind around the suite that he had rented for her and was just opening a closet for Adalind that was full of new clothes, shoes, and more as reconciliation when Sean Renard walked into the suite, surprising Viktor and Adalind.

"I see you are back in Portland," Renard said without preamble, looking at Adalind as he crossed his arms, "And with my cousin Viktor no less."

"Sean, my dear cousin it's been too long hasn't it?" Viktor asked, there was a slight tenseness to his shoulders as he spoke, "You hear about Eric?"

"Yes, my brother's death was unfortunate," Renard replied, he spoke as if it really didn't concern him.

"Suspicious circumstances," Viktor began, "Don't you think? Poor Eric dies in a car explosion and you don't think that one of us might be next?"

"Eric shouldn't have put himself in the positions he did," Renard replied cryptically, "Especially when he came to Portland for my Grimm."

"You know it's interesting you should say that," Viktor said stiffly, "That's part of the reason why we came here as well, for Mr. Burkhardt I mean. See he has a way to contact his mother, who I have learned has Diana."

"Why did you give her away?" Adalind demanded suddenly, she was so angry with Sean, "How could you do it?"

"It's simple really," Renard said gazing impassively at Adalind, " I gave Diana to the one person I thought would protect her."

Adalind started going towards Renard intent on slapping him fair across the face, when Viktor grabbed her arm and held her back, "I think we all should just remain civil with one another, don't you?" Viktor said rhetorically, "And cousin, I think it would be best to make good use of the means at your disposal ," Viktor paused briefly to give Sean a purposeful stare, "As a police captain to locate Diana, as you said he's your Grimm, because we are not leaving without her."

* * *

The next day, Viktor was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace, he stopped and turned to face Adalind as she came out of the bedroom and stated, "I'm going to see some important people, feel free to do whatever you want." Adalind just nodded okay in reply, as Viktor left the suite.

After having a soothing shower and getting dressed for the day, Adalind ventured out into the outside world, where risks or dangers may be lurking. She hoped not to run into any of the people she had pissed off in the past, for such an encounter would most likely not end well for her. However, there was one person that would not be able to do anything to her - Juliette, after all Juliette was a normal human being, nothing dangerous whatsoever. With that thought in mind, Adalind decided that she was going to find Juliette and demand to know where her baby had been taken. Adalind frowned deeply and growled quietly to herself a she got into one of the Royals rental cars and drove off into town searching.

After driving around town for at least twenty minutes, Adalind found what she was looking for. Juliette was walking out of a shop and heading towards a small motel at the end of the block. Adalind thought that to be peculiar, why wasn't she going home, to the Grimm's house? But never mind that, she had found her quarry and was going to go after it. Driving up to the motel, Adalind turned into the parking lot and parked the car. She watched carefully as Juliette made her way over to a cabin house, number 13 to be exact, she watched her go in and close the door.

'Perfect', thought Adalind getting out of the car, before she strode purposefully up to the cabin house and knocked on the door twice. The door opened and Adalind came face to face with a very infuriated Juliette.

"What do you want, you bitch!?" Juliette snapped, fury burning through her veins, she shook slightly.

"I want to know where my baby is!" Adalind replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

"I don't think you need to know that information!" Juliette hissed nastily, "In fact your child is probably better off without you!"

Adalind gasped, her eyes widened in shock - as if she had just been slapped. Then she screamed rabidly, "How dare you!" and lifted her right hand in an upright arc, which resulted in a big vase full of flowers to go flying up from a side table and across the room. It was going to collide with Juliette's head, when Juliette mimicked the action that Adalind had done with her hand and the vase paused in mid air.

Adalind's eyes looked on in surprise for a moment at that before she was snapped out of it by Juliette screeching, "Oh no you don't, bitch!" Juliette then moved her arm sharply and the vase of flowers sprung to life again, this time heading towards Adalind who barely managed to doge the speeding missile. Adalind woged into her Hexenbiest form and started to send objects soaring through the air at Juliette, who somehow managed to send them, yet again back at her. They went back and forth like this for ten minutes, when Juliette decided to woge as well - which freaked Adalind out and that almost resulted in her being impaled by a bunch of kitchen knives.

Fighting her way closer to the door, Adalind made the decision to just leave and never come back anywhere near Juliette, but the other woman appeared not to want her to go, in fact her eyes spoke of murder. Adalind had almost reached the front door when something hard hit her in the face, knocking her to the floor, Juliette stopped attacking for a moment and Adalind took that time to quickly get up and edged towards the door trying to be invisible, however, Juliette never took her eyes off of her. When she had reached the door, Adalind broke into a run, heading instantly for the car, got in and screamed, partly from frustration and fear.

Adalind drove hastily back to the Hotel deLuxe and went straight for the bathroom in her suite to examine her face in the big flashy gold mirror. Looking closely, Adalind could see a large bruise forming at the corner of her left eye; it was going to go a nasty dark colour. Touching the area gently, she winced when it stung and Adalind began to think about what had occurred. How did Juliette suddenly become a Hexenbiest? As she thought the question, the answer swam its way into her mind just as readily - if Juliette was a Hexenbiest, then she and Nick must have conducted the ritual that would return his Grimm powers... Adalind groaned and sighed deeply in contemplation, then turned to the big ornate bathtub - she wanted to soak and forget life for a little while.

That night, Adalind went out again, not to pick any fights though. This time it was about getting information on Juliette's condition - she seemed adapted to her new powers and Adalind knew that to be very strange, wasn't Juliette the kind of person who had always wanted the normal life? Adalind also knew that there was one person who could answer her questions here in Portland; it was Henrietta - another Hexenbiest. After a ten-minute drive, Adalind was walking up the steps to Henrietta's house. When she had reached the top step, she was greeted by the front door opening and with the house's resident in plain view.

"Henrietta," Adalind greeted and walked into the house when the dark woman beckoned her to do so, "I guess you saw me coming."

"I have seen a great many things about you Adalind Schade," Henrietta replied, smirking slightly.

"What are you smiling about?" Adalind asked quietly, a little annoyed. Had Henrietta always been like this or had she been too blind to see it? Either way, Henrietta knew what was going on.

"You want to know about Juliette's transformation," the dark woman began, "Juliette is special, she wasn't born a Hexenbiest, she was created."

"Yeah...and?" Adalind said, impatiently.

"What you must understand is that Juliette is very powerful, she only has two options; get control of her new powers or she has to die - she picked control." Henrietta replied smirking again and took a seat at her dining table, looking pointedly at Adalind she said, "But I suspect that may change once she finds out the exciting news."

"What are you talking about now?" Adalind asked, feeling disturbed by the way that Henrietta was smirking at her again.

Henrietta's eyes lit up as she smiled very widely and then said, "Congratulations Miss Schade, you are going to have another baby."

"What!? No I'm not...I didn't..." Adalind's eyes grew wide as realisation dawned on her, the day of Monroe and Rosalee's wedding she had pretended to be Juliette in order to sleep with Nick to take away his Grimm powers. Adalind suddenly felt like she was going to fall over, she groaned the words "no, no and no" repeatedly to herself. Henrietta just smiled smugly back at her and laughed.

* * *

Two days later at the precinct Nick, Hank and Wu were crowded together at Nick and Hanks work desk having a quick lunch and discussing various different cases when the call came in. Captain Renard walked swiftly from his office to the trio and stated that another stiff cold body had been found with a look of stark disbelief and horror etched onto its face. "Detectives Burkhardt, Griffin and Sergeant Wu would you please go to the crime scene and cordon off the area and make sure to study the area really well, it's about time this problem get sorted, it's getting out of hand."

"What's the location?" Nick asked, already grabbing his keys and phone from the desk.

The Captain replied, "1314 NW Glisan St. outside the Andina Restaurant."

When Nick Hank and Wu arrived at the scene, they could see that the Andina Restaurant was a red brick establishment, that had big black framed windows overlooking the street and on the side were some stairs leading to front of the restaurant.

"We better talk to the employees and see if they know anything." Hank said, as Wu grabbed the plastic police tape to cordon off the area from the public. More police cars were arriving to help and the officers were starting to guide other people away from the area.

"Yeah that sounds like a great idea," Nick agreed, "But first, we need to see if we can identify our victim."

As they walked closer to the body, they could see a well tailored suit and a crop of brown hair tinged with frost, the man must have been in his forties at least. He had a moustache and slightly curved eyebrows, his light blue eyes were wide and glassy. No physical wounds seemed to have killed him...But Nick, Hank and Wu sighed, they knew that the Verlorene Seele had claimed another soul. Looking closer you could faintly make out the imprint of bony hand clutched around the man's throat - this man had been held up by the throat quite tightly and then had his soul sucked out.

Nick pulled on some gloves and searched the body for a wallet, finding one in the inside coat pocket he retrieved it and flipped it open to read the name of the man on the ID card found within. The man was from Austria and seemed to be of much importance, the man's name was Viktor Chlodwig zu Schellendorf von Konigsburg.

"Well we have an ID at least," Wu stated, as he read the man's name after Nick handed the wallet over to him, "Do you want me to run this by the Captain, so they can notify the family?"

"I think that would best Wu," Nick replied, looking around the area, "Hank and I are going to question the staff."

Going into the building where the staff were huddled together, Nick and Hank announced that they needed to question everybody. However, they wanted to speak to the person who found the body first - A young man in his twenties stepped forward and introduced himself as George Valentino.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The German words in this chapter are translated here: 'Wo zu meinem Konig' means 'Where to my king?', 'Wie geht's deiner familie?' means 'How's your family?', 'Nun, mein sohn hat sich verheiratet und meine frau hat stricken genommen.' means 'Well, my son has married and my wife has taken knitting', and 'Sehr gut.' means 'Very good.' Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Especially the twist at the end eh? Bet none of you saw that coming...


	8. Chapter Seven: Ghostly Black Dogs

**Chapter Seven: Ghostly Black Dogs**

The next day Nick was at home watching the television and having a hot cup of coffee when a news program started with a reporter introducing herself as Cassandra Quinn. "Hello everyone this is KGW-TV your trusted source for breaking news, weather and sports in Portland, Oregon and Southwest Washington. First in this afternoon's headlines, a man and woman suspected of stealing leaf blowers and a pickup truck were taken into custody after crashing the pickup into a stranger's yard, fleeing from police on foot, assaulting an officer and leaving behind a toddler, according to Portland police."

Nick glanced at the TV screen as he took a sip from his coffee, put the cup down and commented, "People these days...Stealing leaf blowers and cars...At least I get the interesting cases."

The news reporter continued, "Environmental groups are roundly condemning recommendations for changes to some U.S. national monuments and don't expect bargains galore - at least, not yet - as Amazon takes over Whole Foods Market."

Nick did not even have a comment for this bit of news, to him the only interesting news were the ones about crime and anything that seemed remotely weird in nature.

What the newswoman said next definitely caught his attention real quick, "and finally onto our most intriguing feature this afternoon, as we all know at 5,157 acres, Portland's Forest Park is one of the largest urban forest in the United States. With more than 80 miles of soft-surface trails, fire lanes and forest roads, Forest Park stretches for more than seven miles along the eastern slope of the Tualatin Mountains, overlooking Northwest Portland and the convergence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. Forest Park offers an unparalleled opportunity for visitors to experience a true Northwest forest without leaving the Portland city limits. However a Wraith-like being has been caught on camera by a family of four, who at the time were out taking a stroll through Forest Park yesterday." Nick snatched his phone up and speed dialled Monroe to tell him to turn his TV onto Channel 8, after doing that he hung the phone up in time to hear the reporter continue. "Mr. Patrick Arndell was the first to notice the strange apparition and told his son, Mark, to whip out his I-phone and record what was currently taking place. Here is what Mr. Arndell had to say." The TV screen switched to an ordinary looking man standing next to his son. Nick leaned forward in his seat in curiosity.

"You know the day started out good and the sun was shining, so my wife Natasha and I decided to take our kids for a walk through Forest Park. It was about twenty minutes into our walk when I saw this strange black thing and it was gliding through the trees on our right. I turned my head to get a better look and what I saw still terrifies me - it was humanoid in shape, it was wearing a long black cape that was tattered at the edges and it was not alone. Trailing behind this thing were two massive dogs, they were all black, shaggy like and the scariest part is they had these glowing red eyes."

"Black dogs with shaggy fur and red eyes?" Nick whispered rhetorically to himself, and then he remembered that dream he had had, the one with the castle and the curtains on fire and that hulking beast at the end that had snarled at him. Fear tingled down his spine in realisation that it was the same type of creature. Perhaps the dream had told him the future, but not about Juliette, but about what was coming to Portland, what was now here. Nick looked back up at the TV to see it zoom in on the face of the teenage boy standing next to his father and heard him speak.

"When dad suddenly whispered to me to pull out my phone, I did and quickly got into the camera app and faced it towards where dad was pointing. I could see through the camera that there were these ghost-like things walking through the trees except they appeared solid, I recorded them for about two minutes before the dog creatures disappeared into thin air. Something about what we saw sends chills down my spine, I don't think these things are good at all, I get the uneasy feeling that they are evil."

"It's like this Verlorene Seele has a mind and will of its own," Nick whispered again to himself thinking, "The Verlorene Seele seems to function in a higher manner. It can think, plan and it seems to be working towards a goal. What that goal is, I do not know. I will have to discuss this with Hank, Monroe and Rosalee. It could have gone after that family, but it didn't and it had ghostly black dogs as companions...Where did it find them? Did it summon them somehow?"

"And now here is the footage taken by Mr. Arndell's son," the reporter stated before the TV screen switched to show the ghastly images of what Nick knew to be the Verlorene Seele, now he knew what it really looked like and it horrified him as he watched it glide seamlessly across the screen. He then took notice of the two huge black hounds skulking behind it until they vanished into what appeared to be black smoke and then nothing - as if they were never there.

The TV screen then switched back to the newswoman who said, "Well Portland has always been known as a weird place but this really kicks it up a notch, hopefully sightings of this terrifying vision are not seen again." Nick picked up the TV remote and turned the TV off feeling a little stunned, he then snapped back into reality grabbed his keys and took off out the front door - he had to see Monroe and Rosalee. After arriving at Monroe's, the three of them quickly called Hank to come over as well so that they could tackle this discussion as a team.

"Hank, thank god man you got here so fast," Monroe greeted as he opened the front door, "what we are going to discuss is of the utmost importance to yours and Nick's case." Monroe then took a seat in the lounge room next to Rosalee and Hank took one beside Nick.

"Did you see the news Hank?" Nick asked looking at Hank with slightly widened eyes.

"Yeah it was on at the Precinct," Hank replied, "I'm telling you now, what happen in the woods has really set the captain off, he disappeared real fast when it came on the TV and said something about his cousin Viktor, a royal from Austria having been its latest victim. Nick was that the guy that was found outside the Andina Restaurant?"

"Yeah," Nick replied quietly, "I believe so."

"Oh man..." Hank sighed, lifting his left hand up to massage his temple in concern, "What were those black dog-like things?"

"I have an answer for that," Rosalee spoke up as she glanced at everyone in the room, "When my grandfather Eustace went to Britain back in 1932 he leant a lot about the local myths there and one was about phantom black dogs. And from what he wrote in his journals that I inherited, he stated that the term 'black dog' was the name given to a being found primarily in the folklores of the British Isle, often said to be associated with the Devil and that its appearance was regarded as an omen of death."

"And whilst you were on your way here Hank," Monroe said, "Rosalee managed to find that journal."

"And they wouldn't share any information that it held until you got here," Nick commented, frowning slightly, "Okay, please share now."

"Alright, alright," Rosalee replied looking down to read from the journal, "It says here that Black dogs are generally regarded as malevolent, and a few are said to be directly harmful. Black Dogs have been reported from nearly all the counties of England and that they've also been seen in Scotland, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, and several North and South American Countries."

Monroe looked over at the book clutched in Rosalee's hands and read, "These ghostly hounds have many names such as Padfoot in Yorkshire, Huay Chivo and Huay Pek in Mexico, Cadejo in Central America, Old Shock and Black Shuck in Suffolk." Monroe glanced up at both Nick and Hank as he said that and saw the interest in their eyes.

"My grandfather continues on to write," Rosalee broke in and said, "that there is little in the way of what to do if one sees a black dog, as generally nothing really can be done. By the time you've seen one, it's already too late." Rosalee breathed in a heavy sigh, "Wow he was optimistic."

"That's the end of that then is it?" Monroe asked scouring the pages of the journal with his eyes, "They are sinister ghostly hounds that are associated with the Devil, are omens of death and there in no way to kill them?"

"Monroe, they are ghostly you cannot kill what is already a part of the spirit world," Rosalee sighed glancing at him, "You saw the way they vanished on the TV...Into thin air...They are from the darker side of the spiritual realm. The Verlorene Seele would have been too, if it hadn't been made into a physical being."

"So are you saying that the only way to get rid of the dog-things is to kill the Verlorene Seele?" Nick asked thinking, "The thing that can summon them from the other side and control them?"

"Basically?" Rosalee replied scowling at the journal, "Yeah."

"Hey Rosalee, what is this that your grandfather says about something called the 'Wild Hunt'?" Monroe questioned as he scanned the pages, his eyes skipping on a brief mentioning of ghostly dogs.

Rosalee frowned as she thought and looked down to see what Monroe was indicating to, when her face paled of its entire colour as realization dawned on her. "No...No...It cannot be doing that, a hunt hasn't happened in centuries..." Rosalee looked up and around at everyone in pure terror, a fear like no other gripping her insides and twisting. "Monroe you read, you tell them - I need to collect myself." Rosalee said as she handed the journal over to Monroe.

"Are you okay?" Monroe asked Rosalee in concern.

"I will be," Rosalee replied shakily, "So, just read."

"Alright then...It says here that the Wild Hunt is a European folk myth involving a supernatural group of huntsmen and that the leader of the hunt is often a named figure such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul or spirit." Monroe paused briefly and then continued, "Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. The concept of the Wild Hunt was first documented by the German folklorist Jacob Grimm, who first published it in his 1835 book Deutsche Mythologie."

"What?" Nick asked curiously, as he heard that, "One of my ancestor's a Grimm was the first person to name the hunt?"

"Yeah, it says here that," Monroe replied nodding his head, "It was in this work that he popularised the term for the phenomenon and that he interpreted the Wild Hunt as having pre-Christian origins. Oh look here," Monroe paused tapping the page with his right index finger, "there is an account of the Wild Hunt's appearance, and 'Many men both saw and heard a great number of huntsmen hunting. The huntsmen were black, huge, and hideous, and rode on black horses and on black he-goats and their hounds were jet black, with eyes like saucers, and horrible. This was seen in the very deer park of the town of Peterborough, and in all the woods that stretch from that same town to Stamford, and in the night the monks heard them sounding and winding their horns.'" Monroe finished, and commented, "It doesn't sound as terrifying as you made it look."

"That's because my Grandfather didn't write about what the Wild Hunt does." Rosalee looked up at Monroe and replied, "During the nights when there is a full moon between the hours of midnight to four in the morning, the hunt rides around with its hounds searching for any wayward spirits, living or dead, mind you and taking them to the afterlife. Not to mention filling the world with despair and darkness."

"So that's what its planning..." Nick murmured to everyone quietly, "The Verlorene Seele is going to lead the Wild Hunt after it has strengthened itself on stolen souls and summoned a pack of demon dogs just to raise hell on earth?"

"Oh man..." Hank said disheartened, "We really need to find that flaming sword and soon."

* * *

Across town at the Portland International Airport, people were bustling about trying to find their luggage after their plane had just landed. Security checks were in full swing, metal detectors were beeping up and down on some people - who started complaining. However, there was one man who did not need to find his luggage, he had just arrived on a private jet and when he got to the security check point all he had to do was flash his ID Card which read: Kenneth Alun Goderich Bowes-Lyon. The security team bowed their heads, waved him through and called for the next person in line. Prince Kenneth smiled as he breathed in the Portland air outside the airport and proceeded to get into a black shiny car that would take him to the Hotel DeLuxe.


End file.
